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024 “ “The Japanese Lady In The Chinese Dress.”


When Tank stepped out of the elevator and onto the seventy-fourth floor he felt as if he had stepped into a different world. The little bit of Federation Plaza he had seen so far had been quiet and deserted but not so here.

The massive reception hall which he estimated took up at least three floors in itself was filled with people, music and color. The latter was thanks to an innumerable amount of paper ribbons and streamers which were hanging from the high ceiling, some of which were so low they reached to Tanks’ broad shoulders.

The reception hall itself was extravagant to say the least, complete with a small waterfall that cascaded contently over multiple steps into a pond adorned with large flat stones and lined with bamboo stalks. A wide winding stair-case led to offices on the upper level and in one of the corners, in front of the floor to ceiling windows which were providing a stunning view on Golden Gate, a trio of musicians were pounding large drums to whose rhythmic tones quite a few party goers had taken to dancing on the floor.

Tank watched the spectacle for a minute, fascinating by the synchronized movements of the dancers before he made his way to something instinctively recognizable to him. The bar.

He sat down on a stool and let his eyes wander across the room again. Most of the people here were from East Asian descent, some may have been nikkeijin, Nyuchiban natives. It was very difficult to tell the two apart. Or at least it was for him.

Noticing nothing out of the ordinary but a large group of office workers cutting loose he turned back towards the bar and quickly found the man in charge of the refreshments. The short bartender wore traditional Japanese clothing and looked at Tank expectantly.

“Beer,” Tank said.

The man’s eyes looked back at him blankly.

“It’s a popular malted beverage, usually alcoholic. You might have heard of it.”

“You’re not exactly trying to fit in are you?” a soft female voice asked.

Tank looked to his side to see a beautiful tall and slender woman smile at him. He couldn’t quite help himself to admire how well she fitted in that tight red and golden mandarin dress she wore, the slits nearly reaching all the way up to her hip and revealing a creamy white leg. Her black hair was held up by golden sticks which matched the color of her dress as did the bright red lipstick.

She sat next to him. “You should try the saki,” she said. “You might enjoy it.”

Tank shrugged. “Why not? I’m all for new things.”

“Make that two, will you?” the woman told the bartender.

The man quickly complied and produced two small cups and filled them with the cloudy rice wine. Tank looked at the tiny cup and then back at the bartender. “You might wanna leave the bottle.”

The bartender did.

The woman giggled and reached for her cup. She hesitated and Tank wasn’t sure why until he realized that she was waiting on him. He lifted his own cup. “What shall we drink to?” he asked.

She gave him a wicked smile. “A fun filled evening?” she responded and inched closer. “Because it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Tank gave her a meaningful nod.

And while she sipped on her drink, he simply tossed his one back.

“Hey, this is good.”

She giggled again. “Told you,” she said and filled his cup once more. The second one vanished as quickly as had the first. “Oh my, I do appreciate a man who can take care of his liquor.”

“If that’s the case, I’m your dream come true.”

Another giggle. Then she held out her hand. “Kara Katanagi, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Tank.”

It took her a moment to realize that it was his name. “Tank,” she repeated reverently. “Now that’s not your real name, is it?”

“Is Kara Katanagi yours?” he replied with just a hint of skepticism.

Giggling she finished her second cup of rice wine. “You know I’ve been watching you ever since you came in.”

“Is that so?”

She nodded seriously. “Oh yes. You are a regular piece of art, Tank,” she said and squeezed his massive upper arm, her small hand unable to cover half of its surface. “Really nice work.”

“You are a connoisseur.” Tank poured his fifth cup of saki.

She nodded again but this time her smile betrayed the serious expression she was trying to make. “And seeing how you’re working yourself through that liquor I’d say those arms are not the only parts of yours which are enhanced,” she said as her voice turned soft as velvet, her cheeks flushing from the alcohol or possibly her words or perhaps both.

“For a young lady you sure know a lot about these things.”

She frowned momentarily and Tank couldn’t help but remember Bobbie Case’s offended expression when he had made the mistake of underestimating her. Kara Katanagi seemed a lot more forgiving though. “I work for the NFTA, silly,” she said. “You know Nyuchiba practically invented cybernetic wetware.”

“Yeah,” he said and flexed the muscles in his arms impressively. “And damn fine work they do, too.”

< Tank, I’ve been looking around and I’ve come across something unusual down here. > Slade’s voice announced, interrupting Tanks current thoughts. The background static had become significantly more prominent.

“Excuse me for a moment, Kara Katanagi,” he said with his best smile and then turned away from her. < What you mean by unusual? Unusual to you is probably nothing more than another day at the office for me. >

< There is a force field here restricting access to the basement floors. >

< See, that’s exactly what I mean. >
Tank said with annoyance. < Where you see some sort of sinister plot I see nothing more than a security measure to keep people from messing around with the plumbing. >

< Alright, how about this then? >
he asked. < There is no access mechanism here to control the force field and the whole thing is completely invisible which if I may remind you is a violation of safety regulations. I checked with the reception desk and there is nothing there to indicate that a force field is even in place. >

Tank scratched his bald head. < Alright, that does sound a bit unusual, I guess. Maybe it’s “ >

< Hang on, I’ve got an incoming call from Case. I’ll put you on. >

Seconds later Tank could hear Bobbie Case’s voice which sounded a lot more faint than Slade’s. The static background had become so strong it was threatening to drown her out entirely. < The man you brought in, I don’t know what you’ve told him but he did allow us a detailed scan of his enhancer. He’s a real nice guy once you get to know him. Not at all the kind of man you’d imagine would be a stims junkie. If you just talk to him for a while he’ll tell you all kinds of interesting stories about “ >

< Just tell us what you found. By the way, the connection is really bad, can you boost your signal somehow? > Jackson interrupted.

< Uh, right. No sorry, there is nothing I can do from this end, it’s originating from your location. In any case what I found is really interesting. We already knew that stims can stimulate the enhancers to increase serotonin levels in the central nervous system similar to when eating large quantities of chocolate for example or during, uh, sexual “ >

< Bobbie. > Slade interrupted again.

Tank smirked as he imagined Bobbie Case’s face turn a deep shade of red.

< Sorry. Basically the stims lowered the firewall threshold of your man’s enhancers. Quite significantly in fact. I can’t say if this is a general effect yet but if it is, persons who use stims could theoretically be extremely susceptible to outside - >

And then the static finally overwhelmed her voice until the connection went completely dead.

< Bobbie? > Tank asked after a few moments of silence. There was no reply. < Slade, are you there? Can you hear me? > But the reply was still the same. His own enhancers told him that the connections had been terminated and every time he tried to re-establish one he got nothing instead. This didn’t usually happen.

“Are you alright?”

He turned around to see Kara Katanagi, a worried expression had now taken hold on her pretty face. “You seem agitated all of a sudden, is there something the matter?”

Tank looked passed her to notice a small group of people who had gathered near the elevator bank. They looked like partygoers and there was nothing really to be suspicious about. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

“Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not. I have to go.” Tank stood and walked away.

“Oh, so soon?” she asked with such obvious disappointment that even the bartender shot her a pitiful look.


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