Justice at Delphi - The Fall of Sibyl

Chapter 22

Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.

-George Bernard Shaw

Man up, Hasegawa!

Yoshi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn't like him to hesitate. Just as it wasn't like him to hide in an alley on the off chance he came face-to-face with a former rival either. And yet, here he was, tucked behind a dumpster, a hood covering most of his face. He caught a few confused glances from pedestrians as they walked past. He couldn't blame them. He'd probably  do the same in their shoes.

Ignoring the stares, his eyes drifted to the government building across the street. His former office building. A pang of nostalgia hit him. He missed waking up everyday, filled with purpose. Eager to fulfill his role in society to make people's lives better. Now, he woke up filled with dread. Frustrated and weary. 

Anxiety gnawed in his stomach. While Sibyl hadn't marked him as a latent criminal, he didn't want to run the risk of calling attention to himself. Part of his reticence to step out of the shadows was his own pride. He'd once been a shining star, poised to lead the future of their country. Now, he was nothing more than a disgraced politician. Joining the ranks of other disgraced politicians. 

Truth didn't matter, only public opinion...and public opinion was as brutal as any dominator an inspector carried. 

His thoughts naturally drifted to Akane. He envied her nerves of steel. Even when she'd had a stressful day, she managed to keep it together. He too had noticed the strain in her face when she'd visited them. He didn't miss the look she and Kogami exchanged. The silent communication only couples possessed. He'd felt foolish for not realizing sooner. Kogami's dark looks cast in his direction at his mention of Akane had suddenly made sense. Who would want another man talking about the woman he loves? No wonder Mr. Koji had kept interrupting them. He was surprised Kogami hadn't said anything. Then again, why should he? Akane had eyes for one man...and it wasn't him.

Idiot. For the briefest of moments, he'd thought there was something between himself and Akane. Then he'd met Kogami. Seen them together. He'd never had a chance. What was he to a man like that? 

Now's not the time for that. He chastised himself. Akane gave him a job to do. Slipping out of the alley, Yoshi headed to the bar he and a few of his former colleagues frequented. It didn't take him long to spot the man he was looking for. 

Ryunosuke Serizawa.

One of the few people who would still speak to him. 

He was queued outside the club waiting to get inside. While most couldn't get access to real alcohol, the bar had substitutes that any nine to fiver would settled for. Yoshi shuffled through the crowd, purposely bumping into Ryunosuke's shoulder. Slipping the com into his pocket was easy. Yoshi had spent hours practicing with Koji. If Akane's plan didn't work, he'd have a career as a budding criminal. Weaving through the crowd, he rounded the corner and prayed Ryunosuke answered his call.

***

There was nothing particularly striking about the warehouse. Nothing at all to indicate its deadly contents. It blended well with the other warehouses in the district. The only thing that was out of place were the drone sentinels periodically patrolling the building. Unlike other warehouses, this one had more than the bare minimum of security. That was enough to raise Kogami's suspicions. He pulled his coat closer around him to ward off the night's chill. 

"Want to tell me how you know the EMP is here?"

Koji snickered in the dark beside him. "Don't trust me, do you?"

"Not really." He replied, honestly. He could already hear Akane's remonstrance in his head. However, it still didn't change the fact that his trust was not easily won.

"I can't blame you. I'm not a trusting man by nature."

"They why do this? Why are you helping Akane?"

Koji sighed. The man picked a hell of a time to start an interrogation. "No one is born a cynic. Our inspector reminds me of myself at her age. I don't want to see that fade...like mine."

Kogami seemed to mull it over, his head bobbing slowly. Perhaps he could relate? "I used to be a researcher in the R&D department of the MWPSB." He ignored the surprise on Kogami's face. If anyone could understand a fall from grace, it was him. 

"We were developing arms for the inspectors and enforcers in the early days of the Sibyl System. A few years in, we found a problem. The crime coefficients were skyrocketing among some of our technicians. It got so bad, they shutdown the department for fear of a psycho-hazard. The specialized EMP was the last project I was on. Our lab was closed down and we were all fired."

"Why not just reassign you? Why fire everyone?"

Koji chuckled darkly. "Sibyl loves to keep her secrets. A few of us wondered about the necessity of what was essentially becoming an armory. We suspected Sibyl was building an army not just creating tech for inspectors to use in the field."

Kogami raised his eyebrows. Somehow that didn't surprise him. If Sibyl was so well-funded that they were able to produced a cyberized body that was indistinguishable from a real human...what else were they up to? He was starting to get a bad feeling about this. He felt like they were tugging at the tail-end of a bigger monster. A monster that could eat them whole.