Zero Sum Game, page 12
She arrived home after dark and past her usual dinnertime. "I'm home," she called out, taking off her shoes in the foyer. She tossed her bag into her room and walked into the living room.
Her father sat on the couch watching TV. He rose to his feet as soon as he saw Hina. "Welcome home. Where have you been? I was getting a little worried."
Hina said, "I…" then stopped. I what? she thought. I was out learning about the new superpowers I have? She hated lying to her father but knew that she had to keep this secret. His involvement would make things more complicated than they already were. As an only child, it had been little use to lie when she was a kid. When she had broken a plate, there hadn't been anyone she could blame. She tried to lie as little as possible to her parents. Because of her new mission, she would have to lie a lot more. She hated it, but tried to justify it to herself that it was necessary. Maybe when all of this was over, she could tell him the truth.
"I had to stay late at the gym," she said.
Mitsuo pointed to the dinner table where her food waited, covered with a thin film of plastic wrap. "Wash your hands, then eat."
As she ate, Mitsuo went into his bedroom and changed into a t-shirt and pajama bottoms. He went back to watching TV. Hina finished her meal and put the dishes in the sink. They were piling up, and she would have to wash them, but decided they could wait until tomorrow night. She went into her bedroom and closed the door. She reached for the ribbon around her collar then stopped.
"Voice?" she said. "Can I take my uniform off?"
"Without your uniform you will have no powers whatsoever. Nor will I be able to communicate with you."
"I have to wear it all the time, huh?" She sat on the edge of her bed. "Oh well." She positioned herself onto the middle of her bed. She reached for her school bag, remembering she had a worksheet in Japanese language class she hadn't been able to finish in time.
Voice spoke up. "Hina, I'm not completely familiar with human relationships although I know they can vary from one person to the next. Where is your mother?"
Hina could tell Voice wasn't being impertinent when he asked. He was curious. She went through her bag, tossing out her gym clothes and searching for her homework as she answered. "She lives in Fukuoka. Mom and Dad aren't together anymore."
"Were they married at one point?"
"Yes," Hina replied, "but not anymore. They got a divorce." She took the folders and Ichihara's box and slid them under her bed. She knew it was an unimaginative hiding place but it would have to do for now. Later, when her father wasn't home, she'd hide them better. She opened her textbook and notebook, grabbed a pencil, and stretched out on her bed, resting her feet on top of her pillow.
"Why?"
She wanted to answer but found she couldn't. The divorce hadn't been a bitter or long-drawn out affair. It had come as a surprise to her, but in a way it hadn't. She had felt a…difference between her parents the last two years. She didn't know how to describe it. Like a coldness had come between them. She didn't know what they had done to each other to cause such an action. When the courts had awarded custody to her father, Hina hadn't argued; thinking back on it now she realized she too had felt a sort of distance between herself and her mother. But she couldn't tell what had happened to make her feel that way.
Realizing Voice was waiting for an answer, she said, "I don't know."
"Do you miss her?"
"Yeah," she answered. "A little bit."
"Only a little bit?" Voice sounded confused by Hina's answer. "I was under the impression the parent-child relationship, especially between mother and child, is strong. Was your mother somehow inadequate and not worthy of feelings of affection?"
"No," she almost shouted. "That's not it at all. I…I…where did you learn about parents? I just meant…" What was she supposed to say? "I just meant that I feel closer to my dad…"
She felt guilty saying that. She tried speaking again but couldn't bring herself to say what she felt: that she believed her lack of loneliness for her mother were because her father had always been there more for her. "I don't know," she continued. "Usually, fathers don't get custody when there is a divorce. But I'm glad Dad did. I know I'm not supposed to have a 'favorite' parent, but I've always been closer to him. He hasn't said anything to me, but I think the divorce has hit him harder than he'll admit."
"Was there a specific reason for the divorce?"
She shifted on her bed. The topic made her uncomfortable. But Voice was only trying to get to know her. He needed to trust her as well. And trust was built on sharing.
"I guess my parents loved each other, at first. I don't know why it hadn't been enough to keep them together. Dad's not irresponsible or lazy. He's just forgetful and absent-minded."
"That hardly seems to be grounds for dissolving a marriage. An institution, I am led to believe, that lasts until death."
Hina grimaced at the last word and chose to ignore it. "Dad is…a little weak-willed. Maybe that had something to do with it. Mom has a strong personality."
"Perhaps-"
"Voice," she interrupted, "I have homework I need to finish. Can we talk about this later?"
"Of course."
She continued her homework in silence. When she finished, she grabbed her Apple laptop and surfed the Internet. She clicked on YouTube and typed in several different keywords for cats, watching many cat videos from around the world. As usual when surfing YouTube, she lost track of time, clicking from one video to the next. She wasn't a YouTube addict like a few of her classmates were, but she sometimes lost herself for an hour or so clicking from video to video. She was amazed at what a person could stumble upon by clicking on the Related or More From This User tabs.
After laughing at and cooing over cats from all over the world—and wishing she could have one of her own, preferably a Norwegian Forest cat or a Ragdoll—she gathered her nightwear and walked towards the bathroom. The evening news was on. The lead story was once again about the docked submarine and its Arctic journey to explore earthquakes.
"Hina, stop," Voice instructed.
She stopped and stood in the kitchen, watching the TV through the doorway. After the report ended, Voice said, "I've seen that vessel before."
Hina almost answered, then realized she was standing close to her father. She whispered, "Of course. It's been on the news a lot."
"Ichihara had followed Fujiya to Hiroshima Port. He seemed interested in the submarine. It could factor into their plans," Voice said.
"How?" It didn't seem dangerous. It wasn't a military vessel, it was a giant research ship.
"I'm uncertain, but I think we should investigate it." His statement was less of a comment and more like a command.
Hina hoped he didn't mean what she thought he meant. She walked to the bathroom area and closed the curtain. "Now?"
"Yes," Voice said.
She continued to whisper. "But I have school tomorrow. And Dad is still awake."
"We'll sneak out after he goes to bed."
"But—"
"This is important," Voice said. "We don't know the timetable for their plans and we need as much as information as possible. I know you have other duties, but this supersedes them at the moment."
First she had to lie to her father and now she had to sneak out. She felt guilty for doing such things. She told herself it was to save her friends and family. As long as they were safe after all this, her father could yell and punish her all he wanted. It would be worth it. "Okay," she said.
The TV went dark. Her father entered the kitchen. "I'm going to bed now. Good night."
Hina poked her head around the curtain. "Good night, Dad," she said. Her father went into his room and closed the door.
Her bath now postponed, Hina turned off all the lights and went back into her bedroom. She laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Dad's a heavy sleeper. He'll fall asleep fast."
"We will wait half an hour before commencing our investigation," Voice said.
After a long time of uncomfortable silence, Hina couldn't stand the quiet. "Voice?" she whispered. "Will I be a criminal? I mean, I'm sneaking out, lying to my father. Not long from now, I'll be sneaking onto the government's property. What happens if I get caught? I'm breaking the law. Does that make me a bad person?"
"The ends justify the means," Voice said. "And no, you're not a bad person. You are doing this to save them. What good you achieve in the long run will outweigh whatever criminal acts you do now. Yes, you will be breaking rules, but you have to focus on the outcome."
Hina didn't agree with Voice's first statement. But he did have a point: she needed to get comfortable with doing bad things in the name of good. She thought about the anime and movies she had watched. Characters were always sneaking into places they shouldn't have been in, fighting in public, and destroying property. But they did it in the name of justice because they believed in something. Hina had to do the same, she had to believe that what she was doing would save everyone she knew.
"Voice, what are we looking for at Hiroshima Port?"
"The DSV Kaiyou Infinity is a research submarine based on the now-defunct Russian Typhoon-class submersible," he explained, "although the Infinity is larger. The plans for such a vessel have been around for many years, but it was only after my estimated arrival date of Shimizu and Fujiya has its construction been accelerated. The Noigel's interest needs looking into. We need more information about the submarine, as well as search for any Noigel technology that may be inside."
That seemed reasonable to Hina, but her heart raced in fear thinking about sneaking onto government property. Voice instructed to take out Ichihara's scanner, hidden in the box under her bed. It was thin, like her iPhone, with a single screen taking up the entire front, and a metal back. The diamond-shaped device fit in her hand. She swiped her finger across the screen and the unit activated. Diagonal Noigel writing filled the screen.
"Give me a moment and I will reconfigure the device's language options to Japanese," Voice said. After restarting, the three alphabets of Japanese—katakana, hiragana, and kanji—flowed across the device.
Hina spent a few minutes with Voice, going over the simple basics of using the scanner. It operated much like a smartphone.
"Why couldn't you and Ichihara use this to find the other Noigel?"
"The range is very limited," Voice said. "Also, our scientists built the flash skins too well. It masks biological signatures from our own devices as well as from the devices of others."
She sat on her rug and decided to practice her super hearing. She focused on her father's room. For a moment every sound became magnified, threatening to drown her in a sea of noise. She heard the TV from the apartment downstairs, a crying baby from another building, the roar of passing traffic, people talking on the streets blocks away. She tuned it out, trying to focus on her father. Soon the other sounds faded away, like a radio station losing its signal the farther one drove away from it. She heard the loud rasping of cloth scraping against cloth as he moved in his bed.
Twenty minutes later, she slipped the scanner into her skirt pocket and opened her balcony door. The laundry had been finished for the week so she was thankful there were no hangers or clothes to get in her way. But it seemed a long ways down. Voice reassured her that she wouldn't be harmed. Taking a deep breath, she looked both ways down the street to make sure no one would spot her. She climbed atop of the air conditioner unit, then stepped onto the railing. She gripped the roof's edge for support. She felt a touch of vertigo and stepped into thin air before she could lose her courage.
As she plummeted, she felt her body wanting to move on its own. What's it doing? she thought. She fought her limbs and cartwheeled in the air. She smashed facedown into the pavement. She stood, checked the street again for passersby, then retreated into the darkness afforded by her building. She wasn't hurt, the pavement was unbroken, and not even her blue school uniform showed any signs of dirt.
"What happened, Hina?" Voice asked.
"I was about to ask you the same thing. You wanted me to jump and I did."
"I was attempting to control your decent. I wanted to help you land in the most efficient manner possible. Which, I may add, is not a heap on the ground."
Voice was trying to help her, she realized, like he had in math class and with the English reading.
"You must learn to trust me," he said.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"A bus will be too slow. Because it is night, the likelihood of you being spotted by friends or teachers is small," Voice said. "Not only are you strong, you have superhuman endurance as well. You can run to Hiroshima Port without tiring."
Hina didn't believe him, but she would try.
CHAPTER 14
Voice had told the truth; after more than forty-five minutes of uninterrupted jogging, Hina wasn't even out of breath. She had taken back alleys and side streets, to avoid being seen by people who knew her and because they were less crowded this time of night.
She slowed when she saw the sign for the port and tried to act casual. Hiroshima Ujina Port Station was a terminus for the Hiroden Ujina tram line. The port also handled the ferries that shuttled back and forth between Hiroshima and the island of Miyajima.
She moved past the station to where the more industrial and commercial ships docked. She spotted the DSV Kaiyou Infinity. It looked much bigger than it had on TV. It was almost 300 meters long. The top was flat, with enough room to walk about. A gangplank led from the pier to the submarine, and she hurried across it. She circled around to the far side of the massive conning tower so she would be blocked from view.
"Remove the scanner and take a reading of the metallic elements of this vessel," Voice instructed.
She waved the scanner back and forth several times. The text was meaningless to her, even though it was in Japanese. Complex mathematical equations and symbols she vaguely remembered from the periodic table scrolled across the screen.
"This does support our suspicions, Hina," said Voice.
"How so?" she whispered.
"The hull, along with the majority of the internal structure and frame, consists of an Earth-Noigel metal hybrid. Ichihara had learned of it earlier and discovered that AHI's rapid advancement had been because of a new metallic substance the company had made. It is much lighter and stronger than anything currently available. I would suspect this submarine is capable of going to the deepest part of Earth's oceans."
"So, what does that mean? I mean, for us."
"Shimizu and Fujiya are involved with AHI and this submarine. However they intend to terraform Earth will involve this ship. We need to investigate more."
Hina looked around, sure that someone had spotted her and she would soon hear alarms and men shouting; it happened all the time in movies. She only heard the lapping of the waves against the metal hull.
"Look towards the stern," Voice said.
Hina looked towards the sub's front.
"The back," said Voice. "There is another hatch. A smaller submersible is scheduled to be attached to the Infinity tomorrow. We can use the access port to sneak inside. Move quickly."
Hina did as instructed. Once Voice had overridden the security system, she descended the ladder and stood at the door that led into the corridor. Voice spoke again. "Take another reading."
Hina found nothing. "Now what?" she asked.
"There was too much interference to get a reliable scan from outside," Voice said. "Readings will be much clearer here. All we need to do is make one pass from bow to stern…from the front to the back…then we can leave if we detect no Noigel technology."
"And if we do?"
"Then we must retrieve it." He paused. "While this is happening, we must avoid all contact with the ship's personnel."
"What should I do if I run into someone?" There was no logical explanation for her to be on a sub. Also, she was a terrible liar.
"I believe the human expression in this case is: 'We will cross that bridge when we come to it,'" Voice said.
Hina put her ear to the door and enhanced her hearing. Even at rest the submarine sounded like a brass band tuning up in a metallic bubble. After sifting through the noise, she could focus on the hallway. She didn't hear anybody so she opened the door and peeked out.
The corridor was much narrower than she had expected, two people passing by each other would almost brush the curved walls with their shoulders. She was sure Doumoto from class 3B could touch the low ceiling without standing on his toes. Everything was metal and painted in shades of silver and gray. Pipes were visible everywhere, even under the grated floor. Every step rung out in metallic tones.
She made her way towards the front of the boat, passing signs written in abbreviations and scientific jargon she didn't understand. She was glad the diamond-shaped scanner in her hand made no noise.
"Voice. Why aren't all the doors set into the floor?" She noticed that each opening was raised, and evenly spaced every few meters. She had to continually step over a small barrier, like entering a shrine's gate. The doors themselves were square, with metal bars and levers on each side.
"Each door seals a compartment. If the submarine is flooded, it helps contain the water. Doors flush with the floor are not as watertight."
The submarine was boring. There were five decks, labeled A through E, and each one looked the same as the others. She scanned in silence for several minutes. She didn't find any indications of Noigel technology.
She asked, "How do you talk to me?"
"I can manipulate the small bones and membranes in your ears. The patterns I reproduce simulate human speech," Voice said.
"And since you can't read my mind or look at me, if I don't say anything, you can't know what I'm doing. Right?"
"Essentially, correct. I can monitor your body and get a sense of your movements and moods based on bodily functions. But without auditory input, I don't know if you understand me or not," Voice explained.
Hina glanced through an open door into a small lab. "So I have to keep talking out loud, making it look like I'm talking to myself, and everyone looking at me like I'm crazy." She passed the lab and continued scanning.
