May 12, 2008

"Please explain to me what I'm looking at, Director Kirihara."

Misaki refrained from pointing out the obvious; she could see that the Superintendent still hadn't finished his first cup of coffee and would be in no mood for flippancy. Next to that cup, that morning's copy of Yomiuri Shimbun was sitting on the desk in front of him. Even upside-down from her perspective, the headline was clear: Escalation of contractor violence leaves four seriously injured in Shinjuku.

"It was an isolated incident," she said. "Nothing is escalating."

"That's not what it says here."

"It was just one contractor, who didn't feel the need to wait for a credit check. My team was on site within five minutes and apprehended her. No one had to be hospitalized overnight; the owner and his family are downstairs giving their official statements right now. He lost about half of his used car inventory, but that's all."

"That's not what it says here," Kan repeated, pointing at the headline to emphasize his words.

Misaki shifted her weight impatiently, wishing that she hadn't worn her pumps again - and that she'd taken him up on his offer of a seat. "That reporter -"

"Did you give him a statement?"

"Well, no. I'd only just gotten back from Hokkaido -"

"Hokkaido. Ms. Tou's funeral." Kan flipped a couple of pages over, where a headline read Section Four operation in Sapporo goes badly wrong, resulting in the death of an officer. "I see Mr. Toda was there. As were you. Why?"

A dressing-down was not how she had expected to start the week. Especially not from Kan, who thus far had had a fairly hands-off approach to her supervision. But this morning his tone, coupled with a fresh, severe buzz cut, was putting her on the defensive. "Officer Tou died during an operation that I was supervising," she answered quietly. "I owed it to her to be there."

"No. You owed it to her to do your job."

"I -" she began to protest, but Kan cut her off.

"You are the Director of Foreign Affairs, not just the Chief of Section Four." He tapped the headline with a finger. "It is not your job to personally oversee every field operation or to arrest every contractor that enters the city." His tone softened a bit - only a bit - and he added, "What happened in Sapporo wasn't your fault, and you'll never see me questioning decisions made in the field. But this -" another jab at the paper - "is your fault. At least he didn't make the connection to the warehouse fire. Rumors of contractor-planted bombs is the last thing we need right now."

The reassurances about Tou were only making her feel worse; but how were these articles her fault? "I can't control what a reporter writes, especially since the facts are technically true. Not without a court order." Which Kan had steadfastly refused to let her pursue.

Her superior leaned back in his chair and regarded her flatly. "Hourai always said that you were an exceptionally capable leader and should be the first one considered for his position when he eventually retired."

Misaki had to struggle to suppress a surge of loathing. "With respect, sir, Hourai was a criminal conspirator who was planning the deaths of thousands of people. I really don't care what his opinion of me was."

"Good, because I'm beginning to think he was wrong."

She blinked in surprise. "Sir?"

"You are displaying a decided lack of ability to see the larger picture."

"The larger…"

"Rooting out the remaining Syndicate members is Section Four's number one priority, as it should be. But that branch has been top secret for a long time, and you've been isolated there. Out of touch with the people that you exist to protect. As Director of Foreign Affairs, your priority is public security. And right now," he said, lifting the newspaper and dropping it into the trash beside his desk, "the public does not feel secure."

"But there isn't any escalating violence," Misaki protested. "Toda -"

"Writes to confirm what people already believe. Because you've given him no reason to do otherwise."

Misaki pursed her lips, unsure how to respond. Did Kan expect her to babysit a reporter, to somehow cajole him into showing the police in a better light? She wasn't a goddamn handler.

"Why did you take it upon yourself to hold that press conference in March, Director Kirihara?"

"Because…I knew we'd never be able to continue hiding the existence of contractors after the attack on the Gate. I wanted to take control of the situation, and ensure that the public knew about them, so that people would stand up and protest if someone like the Syndicate ever tried to commit genocide against them again."

"And do you feel you've succeeded in that?"

"It's only been two months…" Misaki began before trailing off. She saw now where Kan was going with this. It had only been two months; but public opinion wasn't moving in the direction that she had wanted. And she was doing nothing about it.

Kan nodded, seeing her understanding. "You called that press conference; you decided that it was time the public learned about contractors. You need to deal with this."

"Yes, sir."

He slid a new folder in front of him and opened it. "I see you've requested two months' leave beginning in October."

Misaki took a deep breath. "Yes, sir. And I'd like to reduce my time in the field between now and then."

"Good. You're spending too much time directly overseeing operations as it is. You need to trust your people, Director. If you can't trust them to carry out their orders, then you have a more fundamental problem." Kan closed the folder. "You expect to be back full time in December?"

"Yes, sir."

The Superintendent nodded. "I won't announce the appointee for the permanent Director position before October. But turn this PR fiasco around before then and it will be waiting for you when you get back."

It took Misaki a long moment to process what he'd just said. "Sir?"

"We'll have to sit down and consider how best to transition Section Four's leadership, of course. Otherwise your appointment should go smoothly."

"The other section chiefs…"

"Will deal with it. Public relations may not be one of your skills yet, but you do excel at convincing people to follow where you lead. The other chiefs will be on board with the decision by October, I'm sure. Hell, you were able to get BK-201 of all people to trust you."

Misaki wanted to protest that that had been mostly an accident; it wasn't as if she'd gone out actively trying to recruit him. They'd just…crossed paths, and ended up on the same road together. It was more fate than anything.

Then she remembered what she'd told Aisha: he had trusted her first, on the basis of nothing more than a couple of brief interactions. It wasn't until after the trust had been mutual - and tested - that they'd started a real relationship.

Maybe Kan was right. Partially, at least. Chief Jouda would never sign on with her as Director.

"Yes, sir," was all she said.

She left the office feeling completely off-balance, as she usually did after her meetings with Kan. She'd expected…well, she didn't know what she'd expected. Some kind of comment on her reason for taking leave, perhaps. Less censure for attending Tou's funeral. Certainly not the promise of the directorship.

Did she even want the job? she wondered as she waited for the elevator to take her down to the fifth floor and her team. Because they were still her team, at least for now. If she moved to the twelfth floor permanently, she'd be merely directing their new chief, not working with them on a daily basis. She'd miss that.

But a promotion would mean a higher paycheck; maybe she would be able to afford to move into a two-bedroom apartment, have a little extra space. She could even work from home occasionally; that would help, especially since she hadn't even started looking for a solution to what she would do once her maternity leave was up.

It would be mostly desk work. Desk work bored her to tears.

An image of Tou's son clutching his mother's urn flashed through her mind.

Desk work was safer.

Or was this just her father again, manipulating her career even from house arrest? She remembered his look of pride at telling her she was on her way to being the NPA's first female superintendent…and his disappointment when she'd turned down the last promotion she'd been offered. She hadn't been ready then; she wasn't ready now. Alice had died last time; now Tou. Because of orders she'd given. How could she so easily take on more responsibility, after that?

Kan was right about one thing: Toda Toru and the picture of contractors that he was painting for the public was her responsibility. She was going to have to figure out how to deal with that, Misaki decided as the elevator doors opened to the fifth floor lobby - and absolute chaos.

Misaki pressed a hand to her temple from the sheer noise of the open room. The Interpol team were at their stations to the left as usual, but Gmerek and Francesca were each speaking animatedly on their cell phones as if trying to talk over one another, while Navid was noisily flipping through a stack of printouts and muttering to himself. The phone on his desk was ringing yet going completely ignored.

Section Four's side was even worse. Saitou was also on the phone, speaking loudly with one finger in his ear. Next to his desk, Matsumoto was seated with a dark-haired man in a moderately respectable business suit. The man was clearly a foreigner, with coloring a little darker than Aisha's. He was explaining something to Matsumoto in halting Japanese, gesticulating broadly with his arms whenever words failed him. Matsumoto interrupted with frequent questions, which the man merely talked over. One of his hands was bandaged, but that didn't seem to affect his ability to talk.

Kouno, on the other hand, wasn't saying a word. He was standing with a look of dumb shock while a woman in some sort of traditional Middle Eastern dress with a scarf around her head harangued him with a steady, angry stream of Japanese intermixed with a language that Misaki didn't recognize. A toddler was clutching at her skirt speaking gibberish while an even younger child cried on her hip. The woman was ignoring both.

For the first time in weeks, Misaki was glad that her office was nowhere near the fifth floor.

Aisha was gazing warily at the woman from her seat two desks away. Misaki walked over to her.

"These are the people whose business was attacked?" she asked. "Sid…Siddi?"

"Siddiqi," Aisha nodded. "Mr. Siddiqi almost broke his wrist when a car flipped over right next to him. I think Mrs. Siddiqi is more upset about the damage to the cars, though."

Mrs. Siddiqi had seen Misaki enter the room; she turned to where she stood near Aisha and gestured towards them without once pausing for breath. There wasn't enough Japanese in whatever she was saying for Misaki to follow.

Aisha slouched lower in her chair and stared at her feet. "She reminds me of my sister."

Misaki blinked. The contractor had never mentioned having any family before. "Your sister?"

"She doesn't like my hat."

"Your sister, or Mrs. Siddiqi?"

"Her." Aisha jerked her chin towards the woman. "But my sister always hated it when I wore hats instead of a shayla."

"A…"

"Shayla. What she's wearing."

"Wait - Mrs. Siddiqi is complaining to Kouno about your hat - you can understand what she's saying?"

"Of course. It's Urdu," Aisha said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Misaki sighed and pressed her fingers to her temple. "Go talk to her."

The contractor's eyes widened. "Talk to her?"

"Yes - go help Kouno understand what she's saying. She's just a woman with a baby, you'll be fine."

"But -"

"Are you part of this team or not?" Misaki snapped. She did not need this today.

Aisha frowned, but after a moment she rose to her feet and shuffled over to Kouno and Mrs. Siddiqi. Misaki made sure that the contractor joined them before turning to retreat back to her own office. She could return once things had settled down.

"Director!"

Misaki jumped at Francesca's sudden appearance; she hadn't heard the woman coming up behind her.

"Have you seen the report on BK-201?" the analyst continued, and Misaki's heart froze.

He's fine, she told herself as a wave of dizziness washed over her. He's fine, he's fine, he has to be.

"What report?" she forced herself to ask evenly.

"It looks like he's crossed the border from Cambodia to Thailand; at least, his star has shifted position."

Misaki waited, but Francesca didn't continue. "Is that all?"

The other woman's brow furrowed. "All? What if he's heading towards Bangkok?"

That's all - thank god. She sucked in a deep breath in an attempt to slow her now-racing heart."What if he is? How is Bangkok any different from Ho Chin Min - that's where he was sighted last, right?"

"The last time he was in Bangkok, he burned down Interpol's bureau headquarters!"

"Burned down?" Misaki repeated. "The whole building?"

"We shared the building with two embassies - it was a disaster."

"You think he's going to Bangkok to attack Interpol?" Misaki rubbed her temple again. "Whatever he might have done previously, it was on the Syndicate's orders; but he's not working for them any longer. He's on the run from them. Why would he care about anything at Interpol?"

Unless…Misaki snuck a look at Gmerek, now pacing in front of his desk while he talked on the phone. She could think of one reason why Hei would make for an international police organization's branch headquarters. Gmerek might have nothing to do with it. Hei might not even be going to Thailand; and anyway, Bangkok was a big city.

Still, it was worth keeping in mind.

She only wished that she could do something about it from here.

Abruptly she remembered the admonition that Kan had given her just fifteen minutes ago, and sighed to herself. What she could do was mention it to Saitou, and trust her team to keep their eyes and ears open. That was all. She didn't care whether or not she impressed the Superintendent enough to secure the directorship, but he was right about where her focus needed to lie for right now.

"Who knows what contractors are thinking?" Francesca said. "I wanted to ask if I could go over your star activity data on BK-201, to compare it with ours and look for any patterns that might hint at what he's planning. I know Chief Ishizaki has studied it quite a bit."

Good luck predicting anything that man does, Misaki thought to herself with an inward smile. Out loud she said, "She has, but you should be asking our Astronomics liaison, not me." She looked pointedly towards the corner of the room, where Ootsuka sat hunched over her computer, earbuds in both ears in what was probably a futile attempt to cancel out the din.

Francesca pursed her lips in obvious annoyance, but she nodded and made her way over to Ootsuka.

Misaki watched her pass by Aisha, and a glimmer of a strategy began to form in her mind. She'd barely had time to form the first thought, however, when Francesca let out an ear-piercing shriek.

Everyone in the room started; even the children stopped crying. Misaki's hand flew to her shoulder holster before she realized that her weapon was still upstairs at her desk. All eyes turned to the Interpol star analyst, who was pointing at Ootsuka's computer screen with a shaking finger.

"Is that - is that original artwork by Doi Yoshi?"

Ootsuka gaped up at the other woman. "Yes - I bought it at a con last month and scanned it in."

"Signed?"

"Yes! I waited in line all night for it! Do you like Rose Morris?"

Francesca pulled up a chair, still staring at the image on the desktop and completely oblivious to the rest of the room. "I have the platinum collector's editions for the first twelve seasons. I'm so behind on the current season though, it's almost impossible to get Italian subtitles anywhere close to real-time; I've been trying to watch in Japanese but I just can't follow the dialogue. I finally gave up after the one where the Australians got kicked out of the zoo. I never could figure out what they were trying to do."

Ootsuka's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, that's the start of the temple arc; they're poachers for an exotic game restaurant. It's so sad, I cried for a week!"

"Don't tell me, don't tell me!"

"I won't spoil anything don't worry - I do English translations for every episode and upload them to an anime community I moderate; I'll put all of season eighteen on a thumb drive for you, so you can get caught up."

The two women continued to talk as the conversations started up around them once again.

"Does every office have an anime weirdo?" Navid muttered behind Misaki.

She shook her head. "As long as they work together, I don't care how weird they are. Did you need something?"

The bald man handed over a stapled report. "You're welcome."

The top page had some sort of device schematic. "This is…"

"The bomb that destroyed your warehouse in Sapporo. I had a vague memory of running across HG-139 activity in Manila a couple of years ago, where there was also a bombing. Kouno gave me the forensics report from the warehouse, and I dug up some old files from the Manila cases. It's definitely the same type of bomb that was used there."

"Not so hard to plant a bomb when you're invisible…" Misaki mused. She flipped through the report. "It seems very basic; supplies that anyone can get at any hardware store or pharmacy. It's not a lot to go on, but it's more than we had before. Thank you - this must have taken time away from your Pandora investigation."

The Interpol agent shrugged. "I don't like to see cops getting killed either."

He wandered back to his desk as Mrs. Siddiqi collected her husband and towed him and their two children from the office. Kouno collapsed into his chair and dropped his head onto his desk in clear exhaustion. Aisha crossed the room back to Misaki.

"She said she's making chicken karahi tomorrow night and wants me to come over for dinner," the contractor said, gazing after the Siddiqis with a puzzled expression.

"Is that a good dish?"

"I guess."

"Then you should go."

"I should?"

Misaki shrugged. Aisha had no social skills to speak of, but she wasn't going to learn them by spending all her time with Section Four.

And she was never going to convince Toda Toru that contractors had value by letting him report only on the violent crimes that a handful were committing.

She only prayed that Hei wasn't planning on burning down Interpol - again.