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The Bubblegum Crisis Center > Extras > Fan Fiction

Instrumantatum Vocalle 2040 - First Impressions

Written by Christopher J Turley

It had been a rough week. The raid on the Nakihama Men's club and Mr. Suburo's other assets had gone off very well. For maybe the first time in Mega Tokyo's recent memory the ADPolice had taken down a major crime boss. Up until now they and the major corporations were nigh untouchable by the N Police, let alone the ADP. Over 200 arrests had netted around 45 known or suspected criminals. With convictions around the corner the N Police was very happy. The ADP had turned over all the arrests save one, Mr. Suburo himself. He was the ADP's collar, after all the ADP had done all the work in rounding him and his cohorts up. An added bonus was the fact that two moles in the N Police had been flushed out by the raid when they had tried to warn their boss of the ADP's impending attack. Even though five officers had fallen in the line of duty Natasha had been praised as the hero of the hour. Her coordination of the event had been nothing short of spectacular. The CIC had earned major brownie points that day. There were, however, critics of the raid who saw it as heavy handed and tantamount to overkill. Others said that the methods employed were sneaky and underhanded, specifically citing the almost non-existent heads up the N Police and other relevant authorities.
For maybe the first time in years the ADP had gotten some good press, even though the news media put their own spin on the events. Natasha didn't care, she knew she'd done a good job, and that her people had performed brilliantly, that's all that mattered. On the other side of the house one interesting thing that had occurred during the prep for the raid was an attempted hack on the ADP server. It had been stopped even before it had begun but due to the increased security at the time it was red flagged automatically and forwarded to her terminal for review.
Natasha set her water bottle down and pulled up the case file. 'Lets see.' She thought, 'What are you after my friend?' She tapped a few keys and brought up the search parameters.
"Knight Sabers eh?"
This was getting interesting already. She checked when the file was accessed. The query return showed two weeks ago. Just after the initial planning stage. She noticed that there was a web cam picture attached to the file. She brought it up. It showed an attractive young woman with brown hair and bluish gray eyes. She looked at the picture for a few minutes, studying it. The girl looked familiar. It didn't take her long to place it. She pulled up the case file from the Sotho Ward incident. Natasha sat back pleased. It was her all right; it was the eyes that did it. They had such an innocent and inquisitive quality. On a whim she decided to cross-reference the latest incident. Another restaurant, this time it was downtown. She re-winded the tape to the morning and double-timed throughout the day.
"Woah! Here we go."
She stopped the video; the mystery girl was there, with Nene. 'Hmm. Now this is interesting.' She checked back to see which terminal had detected the hack and wasn't surprised to see it was Nene's. She entered the audit feature on her terminal, looking for anything out of the ordinary. 'What's this?' She noticed that a non-issue program had been executed to block the hack. She tried to find the file but couldn't, which meant it was on a diskette. 'What if I try to playback from the receiving end of the file.' She asked herself. A few minutes later and after a few tries, she still wasn't as adept as she wanted to be with computers, she was able to bring up the desired file. She pressed play and sat back.
The screen showed the progress from the hacking site, it was a terminal at Hugh Gait, 1st Sales section to be exact. All of a sudden the screen blanked out and digitized blood began to run down and cover the screen. A deep booming voice announced that anyone who seeks information on the Knight Sabers would be doomed to a gruesome and painful death. 'Well, that would explain the frightened expression on the young women's face. Ok, so what is Nene doing with a file like that, unless.' Natasha looked around conspiratorially. Looking back to the screen she brought up the picture of the hacker again. Printing it out she accessed the DCIS and ran her picture and found no match. She slapped herself on the forehead.
"Duh! Hugh Gait. Let's check their records."
Being the ADP Intelligence Director had its perks; it gave her access to all sorts of records and databases. It took her an hour to finally get the information she was after. Her name was Linna Yamazaki, Age: 20, and had started a month or so ago. Her record had a few black marks, mainly petty stuff. Natasha winced when she saw that one of the reprimands had been on her first day, apparently she'd been late and her uniform disheveled. Now that she had a name to go with the face she queried DCIS again and had her address within seconds. If this woman was a Knight Saber she was new, which would corroborate the report from Detective McNicole; apparently at the restaurant a new KS showed up and had nearly gotten killed. And if that was the case that meant that Nene was connected as well.
"What interesting webs we weave." She commented to herself.

Her Intelligence training told her to be wary of this situation. But her gut told her to proceed. This was a rare opportunity. If anything it would determine in her mind whether or not the Knight Sabers were a threat to be dealt with or a potential ally to be left alone. Her military mind told her that it was foolish to make an enemy of a friend. So far it seemed that the Knight Sabers and the ADP agendas matched, only the Knight Saber were much better at what they did, if only because of their equipment. 'Well, I guess I'll go see if the people are as good as their tools.' Nene she could keep an eye on and to be honest she trusted her, so maybe the Knight Sabers couldn't be all that bad. Natasha printed out a picture of the web cam photo, and the picture from the Sotho Ward City-cam. After printing the City-cam photo she got another hunch, she went back and replayed the entire incident. She decided to check into the copy sent to the archive queue. Unfortunately that was empty; then she remembered why, the queue was deleted every 12 hours. She then tried the ADP queue and was rewarded by some great footage.
She wondered why Leon and Daley had left without the information when they'd come in asking for the same thing not more than a day after the event. She smiled to herself when she remembered that they had gone to Nene for the shots. But, if Nene was a Knight Saber than it would make sense that she'd cover it up. She checked her watch and seeing it was well after quitting time, put her dress uniform top and her service sidearm on and tucked the photos and address into her shirt pocket.
When she got to the address she was impressed. It was a nicely designed building and was easy on the eyes. She checked the address again and noticed that this Linna Yamazaki person had her apartment on the second floor from the top.
"Must have a nice view."
Arriving at the proper door she heard the shower, so she decided to wait. Nothing was more annoying than being pulled out of the shower; especially for what she was here for. Presently the shower stopped and she allowed a few minutes for Miss Yamazaki to change than knocked on the door. It opened a few seconds later.
Natasha noted the fact that Linna was exactly her height and saw her eyes go wild with fear when she realized it was a police officer at the door.
"Hi. Are you Linna Yamazaki?" She asked as she produced her badge.
"Uh. Yes, that's me."
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Natasha Romanov, I'm with the ADP, Intelligence Division; may I come in?" It wasn't a request.
Natasha pocketed her badge and smiled. Linna obviously didn't want to let her in but had no choice. It just wasn't smart to tell a cop to go stuff it. Natasha walked in and immediately cased the place. It was a small bi-level affair, clean but Spartan.
"I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?"
Linna sat down on the couch as her heart sunk.
"Ok."
Natasha pointed to a nearby chair.
"May I sit?"
Linna only nodded.
"This is a nice place you have here."
Linna smiled sheepishly as Natasha sat and pulled out the two photos. She placed the picture of her at the Sodo Ward incident down first.
"Can you tell me what happened on the night of the 14th?"
Linna felt better, it seemed that this officer was just following through on an investigation.
"Sure. I um... well, I went out with a coworker and a boomer went mad and started tearing up the place. It chased me out onto the fire escape and then the Knight Sabers killed it."
"Was that the first time you saw them?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
"Well, they saved me."
"And then what happened?"
"They left and then the ADP showed up."
Natasha smiled. So far so good, she was lowering her guard. Linna took a moment to regard her visitor. Looking at the ID badge on her uniform she was stunned to see her rank. A full Director, she ran the IC, which meant she was Nene's boss. 'My god' she thought. She can't be much older than me. She was also struck by her appearance, her skin had a deep golden tan and her hair was bleach blonde with brown roots and ends which gave her a very exotic appeal, she was very attractive, more so than Sylia she thought.
"So, how long have you been working at Hugh Gait?"
"About a month or so."

Natasha almost felt bad for being here. She had satisfied her curiosity about whether or not the KS were a threat after the first few minutes. If the other member was half as honest and innocent as Nene and Linna here than she had nothing to worry about. She knew Linna wasn't lying; her initial battery of questions designed to weed out deceit, and was genuinely afraid at her presence. But she decided to give her the acid test.
"Pardon me, but may I use your restroom?"
"Sure, it's up the stairs to the left."
"Thank you."
Natasha walked up the stairs and as she did she removed the holster snap and safety on her weapon. She kept her ears perked for the sound of the front door opening, a sure sign that she had run. On her way to the rest room she noticed a dresser with a collection of photographs. She stopped and studied them. They showed Linna in her school uniform, as well as in a track outfit. There were a few of her with her family and schoolmates. She continued to the restroom and ran the sink for a few seconds. Turning off the water she walked back downstairs. This person was no threat to anyone other than mad boomers. This girl had a naiveté about her that was refreshing.
"Miss Yamazaki. I have just a few more questions and than I'll get out of your hair."
Linna nodded as Natasha sat and visibly put the safety back on. Her eyes went from the gun to Natasha's face and back again. Natasha moved her hand over from the gun to her pocket and pulled out the second photo.
"Miss Yamazaki. I'd like to get your take on this photo."
"Sure."
Natasha put the photo down and slid it over to her. Linna looked at the picture, which was a screen shot from Nene's terminal showing her on the web cam, a red line clearly marking the path of illegal intrusion.
Linna's entire form slumped; she knew that she was now in deep trouble.
"Well?"
"I'm sorry. I was just trying to find information on the Knight Sabers."
"Why didn't you try the news services or other bulletin boards? Why hack the ADP server?"
Natasha knew the answer already, the news services didn't have squat and the BBS's were next to useless if you were looking for cold hard fact. So far Natasha's demeanor was keeping Linna off guard, not sure what to expect. Sure she could have been Miss professional but than again this wasn't an official investigation.
"I... I wanted more information on them, for the last year I've been reading rumors about them. I just wanted something concrete."
"Why?"
Linna paused, such a simple question, yet so hard to answer, without revealing the truth. Natasha knew that anything she would say now would be a series of half-truths, either that or total lies, and she didn't want to make her do that. Linna shifted uneasily. Natasha was now 99.9% sure she was the new Knight Saber, so she played her wild card.
"That boomer at the restaurant, were you injured?"
"Huh? Oh, not really."
"That's good, I've never seen a waitress model freak like that before."
"Yeah, it was pretty scary."
Linna paused and revisited her last statement in her head and looked up at Natasha. She was looking right into her eyes. There was no malice, no elation at having made her slip up; she was just waiting for her to say something.
"Are you going to arrest me now?"
Natasha shook her head.
"No, I'm not going to do that. You don't deserve that."
Linna swallowed. Natasha continued.
"Want me to let you in on a secret?"
"If you want to."
"I respect you. From what I've been able to work out, you left your home in the country to come to the big city and join a group of people that do the right thing despite the danger, that's pretty admirable in my book."
Linna sat dumbfounded. Natasha was smiling at her in such a happy way that she almost looked like Nene. Natasha stood and straightened her uniform and yawned. However her professional pretence remained. She no longer carried herself like a police officer, but rather an off duty police officer.
"Well I'm gonna head out. I've an early shift tomorrow."

Linna didn't know what to think about this officer, but her gut told her to like her. She would never admit that she was attracted to her; she had a very magnetic and open personality. It was also the way she carried herself, with utter, and total confidence. She couldn't help but smile. Natasha had finished stretching and held her hand out to her. Linna thought back to a similar incident she had shared with Nene. She extended her hand and shook Natasha's hand, and was pleased that the grip was solid. Natasha smiled.
"Friends?"
Linna nodded, admittedly a little surprised.
"Friends."
"Oh, one thing."
"What's that?" Linna asked.
"Do you want me to let Nene know about this?"
"You know about Nene too?"
"Well, no. I guess I do now. I just thought you two were friends. I saw the tape from Charlie's"
"Some super secret vigilante I am." She pouted, covering her face in her hands as she sunk back onto the couch.
"So how long has she... No, don't answer that, I don't want to know. The less I know the better. But I will say 'Thank you', you've given me some peace of mind."
"Huh? How's that?" She asked, curious. Not only at the question but why she was telling her all of this.
"Everyone at headquarters says you Knight Sabers are a bunch of trouble and that you should be locked away. I wasn't sure who or what to believe. That's why I came over; I needed to know and sometimes you just have to figure things out for yourself."
"Well, can't you tell them we aren't?"
"No, I'm afraid not. If I say anything now they'll ask for names and when I don't give it to them they'll can me, or worse. Well, I'll see you around."
Natasha was in a very good mood; she had met what appeared to a carbon copy of sorts. Their lives were very similar, in theory. Natasha had left her home to go to America and join a group of do-gooders, the US Army, well; at least in her minds eye they were, it had been American Army Special Forces that had administered the refugee camp where she'd been interred. They'd been kind, just, and above all compassionate, and to her, they were the good guys. And while the circumstances of her odyssey were far from the idyllic and idealistic path that Linna had taken the similarities were there none-the-less.
She was going to keep her eye on Linna. She had potential; the pictures of her track and field days showed as much. She just needed a reality check. Natasha just hoped hers wouldn't be as traumatic as hers had been. Why she decided to make Linna a priority she didn't know, maybe it was the similarities; maybe it was her eyes. Maybe she just wanted a friend who wasn't a coworker; she'd never had one of those.

After Natasha had left Linna decided that she wanted to know a little more about her. She picked up the phone and called Nene at home. Nene answered and introduced herself. She was surprised that it was Linna.
"What's up Linna, everything OK?"
"Uh, Nene, could you answer a question for me?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Do you know a Natasha Romanov?"
"Yeah, she's my boss, why?"
Linna held the phone away from her ear in anticipation of Nene's reaction to her answer.
"Well she just stopped by and asked me some questions."
"WHAT! Oh shit! What happened? You didn't tell her anything. Did you?"
"Uh. Well."
"Linna?"
"I'm sorry Nene, she cornered me, she had pictures of me at Sotho Ward, she had a picture of me when I tried to break into the ADP server. She even knew that you and I went to lunch at Charlie's. And I kinda let it slip that you're a Knight Saber too."
"Kinda? Linna, do you have any idea how much trouble we're in now? Sylia is going to kill us."
"No, no, I don't think so, I hope. She said she wouldn't arrest you, or me. I don't think she cares if we are."
Linna waited for Nene to say something. When she didn't she continued talking.
"So, what's she like? You know her better than I do."
Nene was trying to calm down. Linna was right she did know her better than she did, and if Natasha wanted to arrest them it would have been done by now, that was the way she operated.
"Ok, Ok. You're sure she said she wouldn't arrest us."
"Uh huh. She said she respects me because of the way I joined."
Nene whistled. Linna wasn't sure what that meant.
"What, is that bad."
"No, just the opposite. She doesn't give her respect easily, she's kind of weird that way."
"Oh. That's good, I think. So, what do you know about her?"
"Well let see. She started about a month or so before you joined. Did you hear about the Nakihama Men's club bust last week?"
"Yeah, it made all the papers right?"
"Exactly, well she planned the whole thing in about two weeks."
"Wait a minute, wasn't that bust on that guys whole organization?"
"Yeah, we took down his hanger and port facility too, and get this, he didn't even know about it until the first cop busted down the door to the club."
"Jesus Christ! That's amazing. How did she do it?"
"Hell, we're still trying to figure that out, and we work with her. And the stuff we do know is classified. She said she'd skin us alive if we told anyone her methods, and I believe her. She even had a few front-liners post guard in the CIC to keep unauthorized personnel from entering during the raid. I'm just glad she's on our side."
"Wow, so, where's she from."
"I think she's Russian, but she might be American."
"Russian huh? I've never met a Russian before, you?"
"Umm, duh! I'm Russian, well, I wasn't born in Russian but my dad was. You know what's really weird?
"What's that?"
"Our last names are the same, except I have an "A" at the end. Hell, even our initials are the same!"
"Oh god! You're right. Wow!"
Yeah, creepy in' it, well it's late and I'm going to bed. Oh and whatever you do don't mention this to Priss or Sylia. I just hope this doesn't change anything at work. Just try not to tell anyone else what we do away from work anymore OK."
Linna blushed, but she knew she deserved it.
"Okay, I promise. Night."

* * *

When Nene came to work Monday morning she noticed that Natasha was busy in her office as usual. She decided to head off any trouble before it started and knocked on the glass. Natasha swiveled around on her chair and waved her in. As Nene walked in and sat Natasha turned back to her terminal and punched a few keys, turning the screen off, than turned back.
"What's up Nene?"
"Ma'am! Uh. Well, I was gonna ask the same thing."
"I see, is this about last night?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Linna called you neh?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Well then, I'm sure you're wondering what, if any, action I'm going to be taking regarding this little, development."
"Yes ma'am."
"Okay, fair enough. The answer is nothing. I'm doing nothing about this. As it stands your little organization's agenda and mine match, and by my agenda I mean the ADP, understand."
"Yes ma'am."
"Should those agendas begin to waver, by even the tiniest bit, it's over, done, end program. Do you understand?" Tasha deadpanned, tapping a stack of papers straight as she spoke, looking up at the end, her eyes burning thru her new protégé.
"Yes ma'am."
"Okay then, enough hardball out of me. I take it you're their information specialist?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Jeez Nene, enough of the yes ma'am no ma'am routine. Just call me Tasha all right."
"Sorry ma'am, um... I mean Tasha.
Nene still had a sheepish look on her face, but at least it looked like what Linna had said was true. Natasha still frightened her, she knew just enough about her to be scared. Maybe that was her plan all along.
"Uh Tasha; can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead."
"What did you do before you joined the ADP?"
"Hmm. A lot of that is classified. But what I will tell you is this; I've been in the US Army for the last eight years. I currently hold the rank of Major with the Reserves out of Camp Zama. And, I love my job."
Nene swallowed hard. Now she was really frightened. She had thought that she was another out of country transfer like the chief. A lot of things began to make sense now, the higher standards that she held on their intelligence operations, her renaming of the IC to the CIC.
"US Army?" Nene squeaked.
Natasha nodded.
"Yup."
"What did you do?" Nene asked.
"Ninety-six Bravo."
"Huh?"
"Intelligence Analyst."
"So, they told you to come here, right?"
"Nope, that was my choice. I only have to report every now and then and serve two weeks out of the year as well as deploy for any exercises the Army sees fit to assign me to. Aside from that I go and do where and what I please."
Natasha noticed that Nene was struggling with another question, apparently trying to find the right combination of words.
"If you have another question Nene, ask it, remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid people."
Nene smiled and emitted a quick laugh.
"Uh, okay. Why did you decide to join the ADP, I mean if you were already in the Army, it's not like you needed more action, right?"
"That's a very good question, similer to the one I asked Linna, and what I'll ask you. I joined the ADP because it would put me in a position to do the most good."
"Most good?"
"Did Linna tell you why she joined the Knight Sabers?"
Nene looked around nervously, obviously not to comfortable about Natasha's casual utterance smack dab in the center of the ADP building. When she looked back Natasha was smiling with a 'silly girl' look on her face. Well pardon me for being paranoid Nene thought.
"Uh huh."
"Well my reason is very similer. But don't be fooled Officer Romanova, I have other reasons as well, and those reasons are for me to know and you to find out. So, why did you join?"
"Uh well, I was asked to join, and I guess I thought it would be an interesting thing to do so I said yes."
Natasha flashed her a devilish grin. Nene gulped.
"I see. Now then, I need the reports on the boomer incident from the 10th."
"Huh? Oh! Right. Sure, no problem."
"Oh and Nene."
"Yes ma'am?"
"Relax! Try not to look so, I don't know, freaked out. I made a promise to Linna, and you. I intend to keep it. I have your back."
"Okay. I'll try. Thanks Natasha."
"Good. Now scoot."

The rest of the workday went without incident and it took Nene until after lunch to completely calm down. Natasha was in and out of her office like she was every day, business as usual, and nothing more about her 'other' affiliation was mention, or even alluded to. So, after work, Nene tracked Linna down and both went for an early dinner. Nene almost invited Natasha, almost, but decided to wait until Linna and her could hash some things out on their own first. Maybe next time she thought.
She had selected a take out joint, just so they didn't have to sit inside with the possibility of being eavesdropped upon. Linna showed up a few minutes late and was apologetic.
"Sorry I'm late Nene, traffic was terrible."
"Nah. Don't worry about it, there was an accident on the highway about an hour or so ago, they're still cleaning it up, traffic's probably the run off."
Insider information, it was one of the benefits of working the Information Center, well, now it was the Combat Information Center, but still. Linna shed her helmet and carry-bag and slid into line behind Nene and they ordered. There was a nice scenic overlook next to the bay and they decided that it would be a nice place to sit.
"So how'd work go today?" Linna asked.
"Pretty good, considering. You were right, Tasha won't say anything."
Linna looked visibly relieved and sighed.
"Whew! I was looking over my shoulder all day just waiting for some cops to haul me away."
"That's nothing compared to what Internal Affairs would have done to me." Nene shuddered.
"Well we both lucked out; I'm just sorry I spilled the beans like that. I should've known better. Especially after I read her name badge, I don't know, maybe the words Intelligence Director should have clued me in." She mused, rolling her eyes.
Nene smiled and patted her on the back.
"Don't sweat it. Oh by the way, I've got some dirt on her."
"Really?"
"Uh huh, sure do."
"Well are you going to gloat about it or are you going to tell me?"
"Ok, Ok. Get this; before she joined the ADP she did Intell work for the US Army."
"You're kidding me?" Linna was incredulous.
"Nope. She was, well, is, an Intelligence Analyst, she's in the reserves now. And I think I know why she didn't bust you."
"Really, why?"
"Well, her reasons for joining the ADP are very similer to the reasons why you joined us."
"Really?" Linna blushed.
"Well, she wants to be where she can do the most good, oh and that she had other reasons but that if we wanted to know we'd have to figure it out for ourselves."
"Well, that's cryptic."
"No shit."
"So how did you find this all out?"
"I asked her."
Linna whistled.
"That was ballsy, I'll give you that."
"Well just so you know, I almost didn't, but she saw I was fumbling for words and told me to just belt it out, so I did. You know what?"
"What?"
"She scares me."
"Scares you? How? I mean she scares me because she's a cop and can arrest me."
"Well that's kind of the same reason for me too, but you don't know what she can do to you, I've seen it. She's ruthless, remember that bust I told you about?"
"Uh huh; the Hanza thing right?"
Nene nodded.
"Well, I'll give you two examples. First of all she didn't tell Metro until a few hours before the raid."
"So, what's so bad about that?"
"Smuggling operations like that are their jurisdiction not ours, I mean we'll assist, but Metro has to ask first. Than she had us hijack one of those marquis blimps by remote and use it as a mobile command post, she had us tap all their lines and relay all our communications and data feeds through it to the officers on the ground, and get this, she parked the thing right over their building, just put it into hover and left it there, then she had our Firebee's ward off all the news choppers."
Linna shook her head in disbelief.
"Sounds a bit heavy handed if you ask me."
"Tell me about it."
"But answer me this Nene, if she did all this and it was wrong, why didn't somebody stop her."
"Because she's got the Chief and Commander Sparks eating out of her hand, that's why."
"You sound impressed."
Nene sighed and smiled at Linna.
"I guess so. Our last director was a wussy compared to her, I'll say that much."
Nene turned around and rested on the railing while Linna looked out towards the bay.
"She reminds me of someone I know."
"Who."
"You."
"Me?"
Linna turned and faced her friend. A look of shock etched upon her face.
"You can't be serious!"
Nene nodded.
"She's got your gumption that's for sure."
Linna opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself. She looked away in thought for a few seconds than turned back with a wry grin.
"Maybe. By the way, what really happened? You know how the news is."
"It went very well. The airport was taken in something like six minutes, the dock took longer though, and the club went under in about ten. We made over forty arrests. But we lost five officers. Everyone's taking it real well though, normally we lose twice as much on any given operation. Oh, I almost forgot. We exposed two moles in Metro. They were really happy about that."
"Sounds like it was a good day, considering."
"Yup, the Chief hasn't been this happy in a long time. Morale has really gone up despite the negative news spin."

"Well it sounds like they guy you grabbed was a real scumbag. I didn't even know stuff like that happened anymore."
The Hanza executives had been in their arrogance downloading, or rather copying, the neural pathways from living subjects into their new line of androids, all of course, to keep production costs down. The ADP had also rescued two 'subjects' and had them in protective custody.
Nene just nodded. Linna stared off out over the bay lost in thought. They finished their dinner a little while later and Linna dropped Nene off on her way home.

At home Natasha was reviewing the tapes from the raid again, she had gone over it three times before, looking for what had went wrong at the dock. Apparently the ships cargo had contained a few cases of weapons. Nothing to spectacular, but the unforeseen addition of some Philippine War era grenade launchers had caused the deaths of two officers when the crate they had used for cover (which would have protected them against small arms fire) had been obliterated by a fragmentation round. Even though she couldn't have known what was actually on the ship she decided to make a concerted effort to never let something like that happen again. She also remembered what Clausewitz had said. "No Operations Plan survives first contact intact." And the human factor can never be predicted. It was bad luck, pure and simple; not that it made her feel any better.
On the bright side the two supporting combat choppers had rocked the side of the ship in retribution. Now it rested on the bay floor at a 35° list. Salvage operations would be required to patch the holes in the hull and float the ship to a dry dock for repairs, should the owner choose that path. She decided that should a similer situation present itself she would need to query the cargo manifest. But than again if there were illegal cargo aboard it wouldn't show on the manifest anyway. The only thing she could think of would be the weight issue. But that was problematic, guns and drugs tended to weigh the same if in enough quantities. There were other methods but none within her jurisdiction. Still, she filed them away, just in case.

When Natasha showed up Tuesday morning she started into her daily routine of reports, meetings, and training. She decided in light of last Friday's events that a more direct approach was needed from her people on the Intelligence side of the house. She had proposed a similer idea, and herself as a guinea-pig to the SOD (Salvage Or Destroy) teams, the US Army's version of the ADP, sent into a battlefield after the fighting had ceased to reclaim damaged boomers. And despite some reservations, based on her MOS, and she guessed, gender, had proven to be well worth her weight in gold. In short she had showed that an expert in boomer types, capabilities, and mannerisms deployed alongside the troops added greatly to the survivability and success of the unit; being able to produce up to the second intell and educated guesses as to what a battle damaged combat boomer might do. She would present that same idea to the ADP, but first she needed to do a little research on troop capability and strength. The big difference was that in the Army regardless of your MOS you were always a soldier first. In the ADP the desk jockeys were just that, non-combatants. That would add a different dynamic as well as make it difficult to get authorization. It was a few hours later when the first day shifters started to filter in. She sent an E-mail to Elise, Nene, and Takeru asking them to come to her office in an hour.
On time, all three entered and she motioned for them to sit. Pulling a third chair in so they could all sit. She waited until they'd gotten comfortable before she began.
"I have a question to ask you all. I was wondering how you would feel about some specialized duty?"
The three looked at each other as if any one of them had the answer to what 'specialized duty' was. Takeru, being the male, spoke first.
"What kind of specialized duty?"
"Frontline deployments in support of tactical operations." She replied.
All three sat frozen in disbelief. Nene and Elise looked at each other. Takeru was scratching his chin obviously thinking about it. Elise was interested as well, only Nene sat motionless.
"Um, what exactly would we be doing?" Elise asked.
"In light of last Friday's intelligence SNAFU a few good officers were killed. I intend to rectify that."
Natasha stood and walked behind them and stood at parade rest looking out into the CIC.
"Despite all the resources available to us nothing can compare to a person on the scene."
She turned around and saw that all of them had twisted around in their chairs to face her.
"What I want to do is put an eye or two in the field with the troops to provide up to the second intelligence, as well as provide their feelings and thoughts to the on-scene commander.
Let's take the dockside incident as an example. If we had had someone on the scene that could have identified the crates and their contents before they were employed against us, things might have turned out different. Also our communications feeds might not always hold, it would be nice to have an intelligence detachment on-scene to maintain the flow of vital information should a unit be cut off from the CIC. This is purely voluntary and I will make sure that you get combat and hazardous duty pay. You don't have to answer now, take your time and think about it. It's your choice and yours only."
To Natasha's surprise Elise stood up with a broad grin and saluted earnestly.
"I'm your girl, count me in.'
Takeru stood as well.
"I'm game, besides, I could use the extra cash." He smiled sardonically.
Nene still sat motionless, deep in thought. Elise leaned over.
"C'mon Nene. You always said you wanted some excitement."
Nene looked over at her partner. She had all the additional excitement she needed in the Knight Sabers, but Elise didn't know that. She saw that Natasha had no expression on her face; she was just waiting to hear her answer.
"All right, all right, I'm in. You happy now?"
Elise smiled and nodded.
"Uh huh."
Natasha went back around her desk and sat.
"Now before you all get to excited this idea may not fly with the Chief. I just wanted to ask you three before hand, I'm not sure when you'll be tasked for this, or if you even will be. But, you're the best officers in the CIC and your records reflect that. Well, that's all for now."
The three stood and saluted, Takeru and Elise left first but Nene hung back by the door.
"Ma'am?"
"Yes?"
"Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure what's on your mind?"
Natasha nodded towards the chairs and Nene sat.
"Why us? Why me?"
"Because I trust you three and you're the best operators I have. Don't worry, you'll still be able to hang out with your pals and pull our fats out of the fryer."
Natasha gave her a smile and a wink. Nene smiled back.
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, I was wondering, Linna and I are going out to catch a movie tonight, and she was wondering if you wanted to come with?"
That surprised Natasha and she showed it.
"Uh, sure. I'd love to."
"Cool! We'll be at the at the Multiplex on 5th at seven."
"Ok. I'll see you there."

Natasha got home around five thirty and showered. Standing in front of her closet she realized that she didn't have the first clue as to what to wear. To her recollection she hadn't gone out once since she'd arrived in Tokyo, as such her non-military attire was limited to sweat pants and other mundane articles of clothing. Well, she thought, sink or swim time. She pulled out a pair of jeans that she hadn't worn in a two years and put on a clean black t-shirt with a Ranger logo emblazoned on the back. Over that she put on a black field jacket. She finished off the outfit by putting on a pair of combat boots and her holster's.
She noticed that everything she had on was black, well, not the jeans; they were blue, albeit faded. Stuffing her wallet into her jacket pocket she zipped up her jacket and went to her car. She arrived around six forty-five and made her way to the theater entrance and waited. It didn't take long for her to see Linna and Nene. They were walking up chatting up a storm. When she saw what they were wearing she felt self-conscious for the first time in her life. Nene bounced up and greeted her with Linna in tow.
"Hey boss!"
"Hi Nene. Hi Linna."
Linna smiled and nodded.
"Hello."
Both girls couldn't help but do a double take at her outfit.
"Combat boots?" Nene blurted out.
Natasha looked down and blinked.
"What's wrong with combat boots." She asked.
Nene was still looking at her shoes.
"Don't you have any sneakers or something?"
"Nene!" Linna blurted.
She stepped back and covered her mouth at Linna's remark, suddenly aware that she had put her foot in her mouth. Natasha gave an embarrassed smile.
"Well I have running shoes, that's about it. I never needed anything else. I'm so sorry, I guess I look horrible."
"No, No, you look fine, really." Linna interjected, meaning it. "So what are we seeing?"
Both Nene and Natasha were glad at the change of subject.
"I dunno. What are yall in the mood for?"
Natasha shrugged and looked up at the marquis.
"What about that one, Vision Quest."
"What's it about?" Linna asked.
Natasha shrugged again. Nene looked at the others and shrugged too. Linna realized that Natasha had probably picked the movie at random. She smiled and shrugged as well.
"Sure, why not."

It ended up being a war movie set in Macedonia during the late 2020's. Part way through the movie there was a particularly graphic rape scene. Natasha froze in horror; memories whirling around in her head; sounds, feelings, and visions all swirling like a horrible whirlwind that threatened to drag her away. Closing her eyes she began the messy process of calming herself. She fought to make the visions disappear; and failing slowly got up and made her way to the back of the theater and walked out into the lobby breathing heavily, her eyes glassed over and unfocused. Nene and Linna followed her and when the caught up with her she was leaning forward her hands on her knees taking deep breaths; they noticed that her face was drained of color and her knuckles were white.
"Natasha?" Nene asked.
"Are you Ok?" Linna pressed.
Natasha didn't say anything and walked with a blank stare, a thousand yard stare to be exact, towards a nearby drinking fountain.
"Natasha?"
"Huh? Oh. What is it Nene?"
"Are you Ok?"
Natasha noticed that both girls wore looks of concern.
"I'll be okay. I guess it struck a little close to home."
Natasha made her way outside and sat down on one of the benches and closing her eyes took a few deep breaths. Slowly her trembling stopped and the color returned to her face. Slowly she stood, her knees a little wobbly. Linna looked at her worriedly.
"Are you going to be all right?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine. Sorry about that. I just never it expected it would be so realistic."
Linna and Nene looked at each other in a combination of shock and horror. They had both assumed that it had been a work of fiction and that the gore and situations portrayed had been a result of artistic expression. To think that Natasha had seen it as life like, well frankly it frightened them. Linna felt her heart break for her. She couldn't even conceive a visual of what it might have been like. And was thankful she couldn't.
"C'mon Natasha, it couldn't really be like that." Nene offered.
Natasha faced Nene and slowly shook her head as if to say 'no, you're wrong.'
"Look I'm sorry if I ruined it for you. I just... I'm sorry."
Linna felt pangs of sympathy. Had she really experienced those kinds of things? She doubted that if she had been where the movie portrayed that she'd want to relive it. Natasha had seemed to have improved and pointed towards the food court.
"You guys hungry? My treat."
Both were surprised to see how fast she had bounced back, and making her way over to the kiosk, waved for them to follow. Linna looked from Nene to Natasha and back again.
"I hope she's gonna be all right."
True to her word Natasha sprung for dinner. They had taken a seat next to one of the condiment stands and when Natasha reached over to grab the napkins Nene noticed a flash of metal nestled under her right shoulder. Nene leaned in.
"Natasha, are you packing?" She whispered.
Natasha nodded and took a sip from her soda.
"Yeah, I always carry. Can you pass me the salt?"
Nene passed the salt over and looked at Linna and pointed slightly to where Natasha's firearm was. Linna gave her a disbelieving look and Nene nodded. Natasha watched this silent exchange with fascination. Then she realized that they were uncomfortable. Natasha sighed and shook her head.
"Nene, am I an ADP officer?"
"Huh?"
"Am I in the police?"
"Yes."
"And what is the primary duty of a police officer?"
"To serve and protect."
"And a police officer should be able to do this on or off duty, don't you agree?"
"Uh huh."
Natasha flipped her left jacket flap back displaying her badge.
"I take my job very, very seriously Nene, because it's all I have. I have no family, no home, and no country. I have my work. I apologize if I come off as a hard ass but I don't know any other way to be. Anyway, that said, where's your gun?"
Nene blinked.
"We, well, operators aren't allowed to carry."
"Hmm, well have to see about that, won't we." Tasha smiled than laughed, looking at her attire.
"What's so funny?" Linna asked.
"Well, it just occurred to me that my fashion sense and my social graces are next to non-existent. I mean who wears combat boots out on the town. Hmm, a hard-ass and a bad dresser, guess that's me in a nutshell."
"Yeah right." Linna said sarcastically, and covered her mouth; shocked she'd said it.
Tasha looked over and paused, looking at her, gauging her. Nene froze and looked back from Tasha to Linna, worriedly. Linna braced herself for, whatever. Slowly a smile, not evil but quite genuine crept across her face. She pointed at Linna with her fork.
"You're pretty sharp, you know that?"
"Th...thank you."
Linna felt bad that she had made a big deal about the situation in the first place and by the look on Nene's face she felt a little guilty too. Linna smiled hopefully.
"I have an idea."
Both Natasha and Nene looked over at her.
"After we finish, I say we go shopping."
Natasha really turned red now. She wasn't sure what to say. Did she really look that bad? Nah, Linna was just trying to be helpful. Besides, she'd never shopped for clothes before and the BX and clothing issue didn't really count. On the one hand she was a very independent person, maybe to a fault. On the other hand they were trying to be nice, she doubted that they would try to fix her up for their own benefit.
"You mean it?"
Linna covered her mouth and laughed.
"Of course I do."
Nene nodded her approval.
"Damn skippy. This ought to be fun."

When they got to the first store Natasha just stood at the entrance and gawked at the selection. Her newfound friends nudged her further into the store.
"Ok, you see anything you like?" Linna asked, putting her hand on her shoulder.
"I dunno. What do you think?"
"How about this?"
Linna walked over to and held up a pair of khaki slacks and a white collared short-sleeved shirt.
"Ok. That looks nice." Tasha accented.
Linna laughed and handed her the clothes and pushed her towards the back of the store.
"Where are you pushing me?"
"The dressing room, you have to try it on to see if it fits."
"Oh."
A few minutes later she came out in the new outfit. Linna was immediately jealous, and warm inside. Natasha looked fabulous. The outfits' color accented her skin and hair color masterfully. Natasha turned around. Nene handed her a belt and a sweater. Natasha put them on right there, but Linna stopped her from putting the sweater all the way on.
"Here, put it over your shoulder."
"Why?"
"Because it looks good."
Natasha turned to face the mirror and looked at her reflection in amazement. She didn't recognize herself.
"Wow, is that me?"
Both ladies laughed aloud. Nene patted her on the shoulder.
"Now all you need is a ten or so outfits like that and you'll be all set."
"That many?"
"Yeah, you can't go around wearing the same thing all the time. Fashion Lesson number one." Nene winked.
That made sense, sort of. After all, she was in the reserves, no need to rely on a uniform for her daily ware. As Linna and Nene helped her pick out a few more outfits they could see that she was beginning to unwind and enjoy herself.
"C'mon Natasha, we've got more places to go."
"But I only have three outfits."
"Fashion lesson number two. Don't have all your clothes from the same designer. We're at Banana Republic, let's head over to Guess."
"Guess what?"
"You're funny. C'mon."
Natasha realized that Guess was the name of another designer, and covered her face in embarrassment. A few minutes later and they'd picked out a few items from there as well.
"Hey, do you guys want something, I feel kind of bad being the only one buying stuff."
Both girls looked at each other and smiled. Nene picked out a cute blouse and Linna had been eyeing a pair of pants since she entered the store. Natasha nodded encouragingly.
"Go ahead."
"Really? Thanks." Linna smiled, blushing slightly.
Natasha was now laden down with over four bags of various clothing and accessories.
"One more stop." Nene announced.
"Huh?"
"Where." Linna asked.
"Shoes."
Linna smacked her forehead.
"You're right."
She grabbed Natasha's arm and pulled her along.

After trying on some various shoes, from sneakers to loafers Linna hit on the idea to try a pair of high heels. Natasha tried them on and was pleased that they were comfy. But when she stood she almost fell flat on her face. Nene and Linna steadied her and Natasha tried to right herself but once she stood up her feet would lean off to one side or the other. The look on her face told them that she was not enjoying this and they helped her sit back down. Natasha kicked them off and away from her as if they were poisonous snakes.
"Oh hell no!"
Linna picked up the shoes and kicked hers off and put them on. She stood and walked back and forth in front of her. It took her a second before she realized that the shoes actually fit, well! She blinked her surprise away and turned and walked back.
"They're easy once you get the hang of 'em. It took me awhile to get used to them when I first started wearing them."
"Yeah but you have next to no mobility in them, what happens if you have to run?"
Linna blushed, remembering her first encounter with Priss and the hassle her heels had caused her then.
"Well these aren't made for running, they're dress shoes, you ware them to parties and that kind of thing. Plus they make us short people taller."
"Oh."
Nene was just laughing at the situation. Natasha lightly swatted the back of her head, which did nothing to halt her giggling. Natasha put her hands out and Linna gave her back the heels. She put them back on and stood slowly this time and took a few small exploratory steps.
"The trick is to put most of your weight on your toes and lean back when you're standing. Once you get better, well, you'll figure it out."
Natasha nodded as she took in Linna's advice. She tried it out and was pleased to see she hadn't been kidding. After a few rounds around the shop she was satisfied that she had gotten the basics mastered and sat back down and put her boots back on. However, even with that knowledge she didn't buy them. On their way back to the parking garage Linna gathered the courage to ask Natasha a personal question.
"Hey Natasha, I was wondering, how old are you?"
"Twenty six and some change." She replied offhand.
"Oh."
Linna turned away and blushed. She sure didn't look it. That made her six years older than she was but didn't look a day over twenty. When they got to where Natasha's car was parked they saw a late model minivan parked next to a shiny 2038 model Corvette. Both Nene and Linna regarded the sports car.
"Wow! Now that's a nice car."
"Tell me about it." Nene agreed.
Natasha smiled; well at least her car impressed them.
"You like it? I picked it up in Maryland about a year back."
Linna nearly fainted and Nene just stared at the car.
"You're kidding? This is yours." She said pointing at it.
"Paid in full." Natasha beamed.
Linna and Nene looked at the car and then to the bags of clothes, their expression betraying the fact that they felt that they had been fooled. Natasha held up her hands.
"Look, I wasn't lying when I said I had no fashion sense. Nor do I have a lack of money. Anyway, the only reason I bought the thing in the first place was because everyone in my unit was getting them, and I just wanted to fit in." Tasha regarded that, it had been the one and only fad she'd bought into. Strange.
The betrayed look vanished as they heard her explanation.
"Oh."
"I see." Linna really did, she wanted to belong to something so bad it hurt, so she understood exactly what it was like to want to be accepted.
Linna walked up and tried to peer into the passenger side window but it was tinted and the parking structure didn't have the best lighting in the world. Natasha smiled and pulled out her keys clicked on the alarm remote and the doors swung open. Linna looked up and than back into the car. It had black leather bucket seats, and a well-appointed dashboard. She noticed that there was a tachometer positioned on the drivers-side near the rear view mirror. The shifter had a chrome skill with red eyes on it and she saw a fire extinguisher attached to a roll bar behind the sunroof. The steering wheel fascinated her however. It had finger pedals and a series of buttons, four on each side. She also noticed that the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car, western style. Nene stuck her head inside next to Linna's and whistled when she saw all the bells and whistles. Natasha opened the drivers' side door and looked across at them.
"What does all this stuff do?" Linna asked.
"Here I'll show you, have a seat so Nene can see too."
Linna slid into the seat, which creaked as she sunk into the leather. She had thought it would've been a tight fit but she had more than enough room to move around. Natasha put her hands on the wheel and pressed her thumb to a little glass plate that was strategically positioned nearby. Seconds later the car roared to life and the two red eyes on the shifter glowed to life along with the dashboard instrumentation. A small HUD appeared in both lower corners of the windscreen, displaying the time, compass heading and outside temperature. Linna leaned over and saw that the driver side HUD had a speedometer and engine temperature gauge as well.
"Check this out."
Natasha pushed in the clutch with her foot and tapped on the right hand wheel pedal. No sooner had her fingers left the pedal than the gear shifter moved into second gear. She tapped the pedal a few more times and the shifter went from 2nd all the way up to 6th gear. She tapped the left-hand pedal and the shifter downshifted from 6th to reverse. Nene was clearly impressed and Linna gave an excited smile.
"I asked a friend to put in a racing setup, just like the ones the Formula One racers use."
She pointed to the eight buttons from the top left to top right in circular order and described their function.
"This button here is cruise control, this one is for the headlights, this is the left hand turn signal, the bottom two are for nitrous, but you have to press them down at the same time. The top one is kinda in limbo, this is for the windshield wiper, and then I have the right hand turn signal. This way I can control the entire vehicle without having to take my hands off the wheel. All the other stuff like the radio and air conditioning is voice control, or I can control it manually."
"How much did it cost to do all this?"
"Well a lot of the cooler features came with the vehicle, the 2038 Corvette was a limited run concept demonstrator, never hit full production though, no market for it. But I liked the idea so I bought it. It cost about $40,000 for the car plus another $435,000 for everything else I'm gonna put in it, you know engine and transmission, and before you give me those looks, you can save a lot of money in six years if you don't spend any of it."
Linna nodded at that.
"How fast does it go?" Nene asked.
"Lets see, normally it goes around 180mph but the supercharger kicks in past that and pushes it to 220mph, if I kick in the nitrous I can pull 300 easy. But I'm to chicken to try that."
"Holy shit!" Linna exclaimed.
"I take it this thing isn't street legal."
Natasha smiled and wagged her finger at Nene.
"Ah, ah. Not so. Not once I'm finished with it. You guys will love this. Especially you Nene."
Natasha got out of the car and went to the trunk and opened it, she reached down and put the clothing inside and pulled out a cardboard tube that had an ADP symbol on it. She popped it open and slid out a huge emblem. She unrolled it revealing it to be an ADP logo. She walked over to the hood and laid it flat.
"What do you think?"
Nene looked up at her in surprise.
"You're turning this into a squad-car?"
"Uh huh. If it's a police vehicle it can go as fast as I want it to. I'll be having the innards and all the other goodies put in over the next few weeks, than I'll take it to get painted and detailed. After that I'll put on the light bar, ram prow, and new tires."
Nene was very excited and it showed. Linna was likewise impressed; she knew next to nothing about cars but she knew enough to know that what had been done to this one, and what was going to be done, was cool. Natasha smiled and rolled up the logo.
"You guys have your power suits, I've got my car. Just you two wait until I re-qualify in the K-suit."
Linna got a devilish grin on her face. She loved a challenge. She was also beginning to take a real liking to Natasha. Maybe her challenge was twofold. Natasha put the tube away and closed up the trunk.
"Can I drive you guys home?"
Nene smiled.
"Sure."
"What about my bike?" Linna asked.
"How big is it?"
Linna held her hands out to approximate her scooter's dimensions.
"It ought to fit."

Natasha pulled out of the structure and waited for Linna to return with her bike. Nene was standing by the passenger side waiting patiently. Natasha opened the hood and helped her load her scooter, it was a tight fi but it made it all the way in.
"Shotgun!" Nene yelled.
Linna got a pouty look on her face and Natasha shrugged in consolation.
"Sorry. Them's da rules.""
Linna squeezed into the back hating every minute of it. Corvettes weren't made for more than two people. As if to taunt her, Nene stretched out in the front seat. Natasha decided to drop Nene off first, since her place was closest. Natasha revved the engine and pulled away from the curb, the acceleration pushing them back into their seats.
"Nice pick up." Nene commented.
Linna who had bumped her head grumbled. Natasha made sure not to make any sudden moves to keep the physical ware and tare on Linna to a minimum. When Nene had been dropped off Linna extricated her self from what passed for a back seat. Saying good-bye to Nene she slid into the front seat. Natasha waved goodbye and made sure Linna was buckled up and after getting directions, headed to her place.
"Linna, thanks for inviting me, I really enjoyed it. Honest."
"How did you know it was me?"
"Nene told me, she's a good troop, lots of potential."
"Oh. Well, you're welcome. Nene said you weren't taking the loss of the officers last week to well. So I thought if you got away from work you'd feel a little better."
Natasha blushed momentarily at the warmth of her statement but said nothing right away. Linna's apartment building pulled into view and Natasha parked out front and helped Linna get her bike. Linna said goodbye and started to walk towards the door.
"Hey Linna."
She turned around to see Natasha walk up to her.
"Uh, thanks. You were right. And I do feel a bit better. I owe you one."
Natasha held her hand out and Linna shook it.
"Seeya later."
"Okay." Linna relied. "Seeya."
She kept her hand up a few seconds longer than brought it to her side, aware that it was tingling, than she noticed that she was tingling all over. Blinking it away she looked up to see Tasha throw her a polite wave before she pulled away. She waved slowly, as if in a daze, She felt weird, but didn't know why.

* * *

Natasha was waiting out front of the ADP building for Nene. The awards ceremony for the CIC operators and the other officers involved in the Nakihama raid had just let out. As it stood Nene wanted to take Natasha to a clothing shop downtown as she'd promised her a reward if the hacking she'd asked her to conduct prior to the raid panned out. She had earned her reward in spades. The work had been stunning. When Nene showed up she was still in her dress uniform with her new medal glistening in the sunlight. Natasha had received a Service Commendation for her part in the planning and execution stage, a second medal; a Citation from Metro had been for uncovering the two moles in their department.
Nene looked very proud of herself and she had every right to. She also wore the new uniform well; Natasha had decided that 'her' department needed to stand apart from the other ADP units. To that end she had procured berets as the new service cover as well a new unit patch. The dress cloak had been altered somewhat, instead of a light blue trimming it had been changed to the same forest green as the epaulets that donated IC workers from the other departments. That along with the white gloves and ceremonial sword culminated into a very impressive ensemble. Nene held her sword to her leg as she got into the front seat of Tasha's Corvette. She noticed that the glove compartment had been altered since she'd last had shotgun. Curious as always she pushed the lock release button and jumped when the dashboard flipped over to reveal a DCRE terminal, which snapped to life.
Natasha had just sat down and saw that the DCRE had been deployed.
"Where'd you get that?" Nene asked.
"It was a spare. I had the motor pool strip it out of a wrecked road chaser. They installed it yesterday, but I'm having trouble getting it to up-link to our mainframe."
Nene started pushing buttons as Natasha pulled away from the curb and merged with traffic. By the time she had gotten to the first light Nene had a smile on her face and made a wiping motion with her hands.
"Fixed it." She announced.
Luckily the light was red because Natasha couldn't resist looking over at the screen which displayed "UPLINK SUCCESSFUL: WELCOME TO THE ADP DCRE".
"No way? What was wrong with it?"
"I needed to reinitialize the CMOS settings, plus I had to update the PPP to allow for secure file transfer."
Natasha knew what the terms stood for but would never in a million years have thought to troubleshoot that particular facet of the program, not that she would have been able to correct it even if she had.
"Wow! Thanks. Just for that you get a full outfit."
Nene pumped her fist down in triumph.
"Yessss!"
"So where do you want to bankrupt me?"
Nene thought and flashed a grin; this would be a great opportunity to introduce Sylia and Natasha without having to reveal her secret identity. She just hoped that Sylia wouldn't slip up, but than again she was the most secretive and paranoid of all of them.
"How about the Silky Doll. It's in the Neo Ginza district."
"Ok, you're the navigator."

A few minutes later they pulled up in front of the building Natasha took a moment to take in the sight. It was a nice looking design. She especially liked the quaint rest area in front of the main entrance. As they walked up they succeeded in turning every head. Nene noticed this and beamed in pride. Natasha was also proud of her troop; Nene was one of the brightest and highly motivated operators she'd had the pleasure of working with. They entered the store and again every head turned to them. Both officers removed their covers rolled them and tucked them under their right epaulet. Natasha had taught them the Ranger way of doing it so that the emblem still showed.
Sylia turned when the customer she was helping stopped and looked over her shoulder at the newcomers behind her. Sylia caught herself from belting out a greeting when she saw a second officer standing behind Nene looking at nice red lace filigree. Sylia finished with her current customer than walked up in customer service mode complete with smile and bubbly demeanor.
"Welcome to the Silky Doll, can I help you."
Nene relished in this, unbeknownst to Natasha, Nene was going to milk this opportunity to its fullest.
"Yes, I would like to see your best outfits."
Sylia, forced to play the shop keep, nodded and waved the two over to a bank of displays.
"Right this way officer."
Natasha took the opportunity to scan her surroundings. How odd, even in a completely benign situation she still found herself casing the location. Old habits die hard she mused, still it was a good habit to be in. In under a minute she had located the five security cameras and marked three other spots as probable locations for motion and heat sensors. She also registered the fact that there were no boomer workers on the floor. In fact it seemed that the lady helping Nene was the only person minding the store. While she was scrutinizing her surroundings Nene and the shop keep had picked out a few items and were chatting away. She walked over to Nene's 'maybe' pile and flipped over one of the price tags and winced, at the exorbitant cost. Well, Nene deserved it; given all the righteous indignation she'd subjected her to these last few days.
When Nene went into the dressing room to try on her outfits Sylia walked up to Natasha.
"Is there anything I can get for you? I saw you looking at that nice red outfit when you walked in."
Natasha blushed and imagined that her cheeks had turned the same shade of red as the outfit in question.
"Oh no! Nothing for me today, I'm just keeping a promise."
"Do you two work together?"
"Yes, we do."
Sylia smiled although she had hoped to get a little more out of her. Nene emerged from the dressing room wearing a stunning one-piece dress. Sylia laughed and clapped her hands.
"Oh you look fabulous!"
"What do you think Natasha?" Nene asked, pirouetting for her.
"You go girl. You start wearing outfits like that and you'll have to beat the guys off with a stick."
Nene laughed and did another pirouette, giggling happily. She disappeared back into the dressing room to try on another outfit as Sylia went to attend to another, more willing customer. Natasha walked over to the checkout counter and picked up a fashion magazine and started to flip through it. She saw a few outfits that looked nice, she guessed, but all of them were way too pricey. She put the magazine back down and happened to notice the name on the subscription. "Sylia Stingray?" She whipped her head towards the shopkeeper, picking up the magazine and walked over to her.
"Excuse me miss?"
Sylia turned around and noticed the magazine in her hand.
"Oh yes? Did you find something you liked?"
Natasha pointed to the name on the subscription tag.
"Are you Sylia Stingray?"
"Why yes, I am."
"Dr. Steven Stingray's daughter?"
Natasha noticed her mood sour as she looked down at her.
"Yes, he was my father."
Natasha closed her eyes and pulled her hands magazine and all to her chest. A broad grin crossed her face. She opened her eyes and looked at Sylia the way a fan of a movie star would if she happened to run across him on the street. She put her hand out.
"Wow! You don't know what an honor this is for me! I've read all his publications. Wow, I don't know where to begin."
Sylia reluctantly shook Natasha's hand.
"And you are?"
Natasha flashed a look of genuine embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, I'm Natasha Romanov. I'm the new Director of Intelligence at the ADP. You can say I've been a student of your fathers work for some time now; his dissertation on artificial processors was brilliant! I don't pretend to understand all of his theories but what I could grasp was, well, genius!"
Sylia was taken aback.
"Really?"
Natasha nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes! I've written a few papers on boomer behavioral patterns and boomer human relations. His work was my key research material."
"Really? I've never seen your work."
"Well it really hasn't been distributed to civilian circles. The work I did was for the US Army. I wrote papers on the relationship between combat boomers and soldiers in the field. If you want I can send you a few copies. Uh. I hope I don't sound to pretentious but would it be possible to meet with you and discuss some of his theories? I'm actually writing a book on the subject and I'd love to be able to quote you as a reference."
"What is the books title?"
"Instrumantatum Vocalle."
"Instrumantatum Vocalle?"
"It's what the Romans called slaves, in Latin it means; the tools that speak."
Sylia was livid, but she concealed it. She hated her father, she hated boomers, she saw them as abominations, and this woman was in effect calling them slaves. She decided to see what her focus was for the book.
"Well, what's the scope of the book?"
"Oh. Well, what I feel is that boomers are more than the sum of their parts. I think that even though they're only machines, they have the capabilities of feeling for themselves. Of course this really only applies to the more advanced models, you know, Type 11 AI's on up. The labor models use a more robotic model for their processors. Wow, would you look at me, trying to explain this to you, guess it's kind of silly of me to be telling this to the daughter of the Father of Boomerkind."
Sylia's face turned red but not in a good way, she was really pissed off. Tasha took a step back with a worried look on her face.
"Did, did I say something wrong?"
Sylia glared at her.
"My father was a madman and a lunatic who tried to play God! Boomers aren't slaves, they're mockeries of humankind, they have no place among us. And anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool!"
Natasha backpedaled under the verbal fusillade. She looked away, unable to make eye contact. Nene, full of cheer bounced up with her final selection and stopped short when she saw a fuming Sylia glowering over at her, obviously chastened, boss. Natasha noticed that Nene had made her choice and looked back at Sylia and choking back tears handed her the magazine.
"Ring that up; please." She bit, a steely expression crossing her face, irrespective of Sylia's ownership of the establishment, she wasn't going to show weakness.
Sylia stormed over to the cash register and scanned the price tag. Natasha walked over and wiping a tear from her cheek in stealth swiped her card and punched in her PIN. When the green light appeared signifying a successful transaction she turned and walked outside without so much as a word or backwards glance. Nene gave Sylia a questioning glance as she hurried after Natasha. When she got to the car Natasha was already buckled in and the engine was running. Natasha sniffled and rubbing the bridge of her nose, pulled into traffic. Sighing in despondent frustration she headed to Nene's house. Nene looked over, very much concerned.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. I found out that she was the daughter of Dr. Stingray, and I asked her if she would help me with the book I'm writing and she..."
Natasha sniffled again and smiled bravely.
"And she what?"
"She said that boomers were mockeries of humans, and that I'm a fool for thinking otherwise. I didn't mean to make her mad, I was just so happy to meet her."
"Oh. Well I'm sure she didn't mean it." Nene tried to cover, and blinked at Tasha's admission.
"Yeah right! She blew up in my face, everyone in the store heard it."
"Well, I don't think you're a fool." She whispered.
Natasha laughed in between a sob and patted her shoulder.
"Thanks. Uh. That outfit does look good though doesn't it?"
Nene lowered her head and looked at it.
"Yeah, I guess so."
Natasha dropped Nene off and went straight home feeling lower than she could remember.
As soon as Natasha's car disappeared Nene ran upstairs and changed than hopped the next bus back to Neo Ginza. When she got back Priss and Linna were lounging around and were surprised when Nene burst in and threw the brand new outfit at Sylia.
"That was a really lousy thing you did Sylia!"
"Nene." Sylia tried to interject.
"No! You shut up! You had no right to do that to her. She was trying to be nice to you, and you bit her head off! That's bull shit!"
"Whoa! What's going on?" Priss asked.
Nene looked at Linna and Priss.
"Natasha and I came in to get an outfit and Natasha asked Sylia if she could help her with a project she was working on and Sylia blew up on her! I could hear her yelling from the dressing room."
"Sylia?" Linna asked, questioningly, shocked and if her feelings didn't fail her, slightly miffed.
She looked at Linna.
"Who's Natasha?" Priss squinted her eyes.
"She's my boss." Nene huffed.
Linna nodded her agreement, which seemed to satisfy Priss.
"What did she ask you?" Linna asked.
"She wanted my opinion on her book she's writing on boomers, she says that they have feelings..."
"Yeah well you sure gave her a piece of your mind didn't you, calling her a fool in front of all those people, I'm surprised she didn't knock your fucking block off! God knows you deserved it!"
"You know how I feel about boomers!" Sylia countered.
"So fucking what? Natasha didn't! She was happy to meet you, she looked up to you and you pissed on her! Now she blames herself for upsetting you."
Nene was beet red; no one in the room, Sylia included had ever seen her so miffed. Linna picked up her bag and started to walk out. Priss turned.
"Where are you going?" Sylia asked.
"Home. I don't want to be around you right now. That was a mean thing you just did, and I think you owe her an apology."
With that said Linna left with Nene close behind.
Priss was left in a real odd position. She stood up.
"I guess I need to rehearse for tonight. Seeya Sylia."
Priss caught up to Linna and Nene outside. Now she was really curious as to whom this Natasha was.
"So, who's this Natasha person anyway?"
"She's my department director." Nene answered.
"A cop?"
"Uh huh."
"Well you know how I feel about the ADP. Look I'll see you guys later."
Priss walked off. Whoever she was she'd earned Nene's respect and Linna's apparently.
"I can't believe Sylia said those things. Is she all right?"
"Last I saw she was going home. I've never seen her so sad."
"Do you think Sylia will apologize to her?"
"I don't know? She can be such a bitch sometimes."

Natasha had spent the last hour in and out of crying fits. Had it been anyone else lambasting her view's on boomers she would have shrugged it off as a difference of opinion and left it at that. But to have Sylia Stingray claim that boomers were mockeries of humankind and should be removed was too much to bear. Natasha felt a connection to her because she was a boomer. In Natasha's mind she had just heard the only person she could consider family denounce her existence as abhorrent. It wasn't an issue of whether Sylia hated other boomers; she hated all boomers, her included. It was as if a parent had just called their child detestable. Even though she wasn't one of the new Voomers, but a S-Series Boomer, her father had still created them, her, and all like her, old and new.
"I guess I really don't have a family now." She whispered amidst sobs.
She had never felt so alone. She was slightly relieved that the incident had occurred after work on a Friday. She'd need the weekend to sort things out. Going back into work would've been very hard for her.
By the time Sunday morning rolled around she had come to grips with the situation. She didn't know why Sylia hated her kind so much, but she had to have a reason, hatred of that magnitude is not whimsical, and something had to serve as the catalyst. She also decided that it wasn't her business, it didn't matter. If she found out, she found out, but she wasn't going to lose sleep or work over it. Feeling a little better she decided to go out but she had absolutely no idea where or what to do. She figured she'd go for a drive and if she saw anything interesting she'd check it out. She dressed in one of her new outfits, a cream colored pair of slacks, nice loafers and a navy blue turtleneck sleeveless top. She grabbed a single strap backpack and put her badge and gun in. As she walked to the elevator, Fred, the floor's security guard, looked up.
"You're looking nice today Tasha. You feel better?"
"Thank you and yes. Say, I was wondering, where's a fun place to go on a Sunday?"
"Well you could go to the beach or pool, of course there's the mall and the movies. It just depends on what you like to do. What do you like to do?"
"Good question, maybe I'll just head to the mall. Want me to get you anything?"
"Oh no, that's okay, I'll be fine. You have a good time though, no coming home with tears in your eyes anymore, my old bones don't like it." He smiled fatherly.
"Okay, I'll try, on both counts. Seeya later."

A half-hour later she was walking through the Neo Ginza Mega Mall. She had nowhere in particular to go so she just walked aimlessly. The last time she'd seen this many people in the same place had been on a field exercise and that was nowhere near this many. She was actually excited and reveled in the sights. She stopped into most of the stores and had some lunch at the food court. Walking around the middle level with the rest of her soda in her hand she passed by a video game arcade and like a moth drawn to a flame made her way in to see the bright flashy lights. She noticed a crowd of kids of all ages, mainly upper teens and collage students surrounding a game and where watching and cheering intently. She walked up and actually had to get on her toes to see.
It was a dancing game; a series of arrows would scroll down the screen in ever increasing patterns of complexity indicating which of the four footpads you were supposed to step on in time to the music. The better you danced the more points you got. She watched for a few minutes and saw that a few of the kids were regulars and were very good. One of them noticed that she was paying more attention to the game that a normal passerby would, in fact she must have looked ridiculous staring at the screen and at their feet, especially being a grown adult.
"Hey you!"
Natasha sipped her drink and pointed to herself.
"Me?"
"Yeah. You wanna try. I'll go easy on you."
Natasha understood now, the kid must have been about eighteen or nineteen and she realized that he must have mistaken her for a twenty-year-old collage student, a worthy conquest indeed.
"Oh no! I just ate." She smiled, embarrassed, putting her hands up in protest.
"C'mon, it's easy. If you feel sick we can stop."
A couple of his friends joined in on the peer pressure, waving her in and patting her on the back. She was gradually shoved onto the platform next to him. She took off her backpack and draped it over the guardrail and discarded her cup. The other kid put a quarter in the slot.
"Here you go. We'll start on easy."
"Okay." She replied, still unsure.
She got the first few steps right but botched the next three. She managed to recover and earn enough points to continue on to the next level. She did well on the next level, better than she expected she would. Her challenger nodded, obviously impressed.
"Pretty good for a beginner. Let's try medium."
She nodded.
The next level was harder but she was able to keep up. Her challenger was good, throwing spins and other moves into the mix while keeping pace with the arrows, which were moving faster and faster. She still missed a few while he maintained a perfect score. Than she realized that the spins and other move weren't for show as she had originally thought, they helped him move into position to better manipulate the pedals as well as keep rhythm. They were both sweating as they cleared the intermediate stage.
"You're not feeling sick are you? We can slow down if you want?"
Natasha recognized that he was a little worried that he was being sharked. Besides he probably didn't want to lose.
"I can keep going, if you can." She challenged.
He gave her a smile that told her that he was about to kick it up a notch. By now Natasha had gotten her groove going and had learned to read the arrows as well as how to move on the pads. She looked around and noticed that the crowd had doubled in size and that the arcade owners had put their game up on the big screen and that they had gathered an audience. Level Hard appeared on the screen and the five-second countdown had begun. Natasha went into tunnel vision. Concentrating only on the arrows, the pads, the rhythm and her challenger. As they started Natasha immediately swung into high gear, which matched pace with her challenger. As the progressed they threw spins, lunges, heel slaps, and other moves into their repertoire. Natasha was smiling as she danced to the arrows. She was actually having fun. The computer switched from hard to expert without the inter-level pause.
Natasha didn't notice the crowd had grown again. Her challenger was getting winded, as was she. When they finally passed their final level both were exhausted. Looking at the screen they noticed that Natasha had a 230 hit combo versus his 197. Natasha was leaning back panting, a silly grin on her face. Her challenger was incredulous.
"How'd you do that?"
Natasha just smiled.
"Thanks for the game."
She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Seeya round."
As she all but limped out of the arcade, the nearby patrons giving her thumbs ups, and patting her on the shoulder. As she took a drink from the water fountain her star struck challenger walked up.
"Hey. Can I at least get your phone number?"
She noticed that a few of his friends had joined him to see if he would score or crash and burn.
"Sure,' She said and handed him a business card. 'Call the ADP building between 8 and 5, ask for the CIC."
"You're a cop?" He said, looking at the card in fascination, and gulped when he read her position.
"Yup."
"Yeah right." He scoffed, still unable to believe it.
Natasha reached into her bag and pulled out her badge and showed it to him and his friends.
"Wow! A cool cop? I never would've seen that coming." He admitted.
Natasha flipped the badge fold closed and stuffed it back into her bag. After saying good-bye he and his friends went back to their games looking over the card. Natasha smiled, cute kid, but ten years to young.

Natasha went back to shop-hopping and wound up buying herself some personal electronics. She even picked up a CD for Fred. On her way home she was very happy, she had spoiled herself, forgotten, well, gotten over at least, about Sylia's behavior and had increased the ADP image all in one day. Take that Ms. Stingray!

Across town at the Silky Doll building a lonely Sylia sat in front of her computer. The three girls hadn't shown up at all during the weekend. She knew that if there was a boomer incident that they would, than again maybe not. She could count on Priss, she was an adrenaline junkie and she paid her well. Nene might show but not if Linna didn't. The situation worried her, if her worst fears came true she'd be down to one Saber, two if she came out of retirement and suited up. For maybe the first time since she created the Knight Sabers she had suits but no pilots to fill them. She needed her people back, either that or find new pilots, but that would take time and she'd have to make new suits. No, she'd have to get them back. She shuddered when she realized that to do that she'd have to apologize to this Natasha character.
Punching in a search query she searched for copies of those reports that Natasha had told her about. The search took a little longer than she'd expected but she was rewarded with the transcripts for two of them. Printing them out she poured herself a drink. Pulling the first report out of the printer tray she sat back and started to read. She was surprised to find that despite the subject matter, which was notoriously dry, the report was very easy to read and understand. And even though she didn't agree with everything she read, the points that Natasha made were thoroughly researched and intelligent. She pulled out the second report and read it in short order. Like the first, it was well written and intelligent. What was more was that the report wasn't overbearing nor did it try to convince its reader to adopt a certain point of view. It merely presented the researched facts in an easy to understand medium.
She noticed that the report in her hand was a fifth printing which suggested that somebody thought highly enough of it to make it a routine publication. Maybe she had misjudged this person. Apparently Nene and Linna thought so. She'd assumed she was another activist hiding behind the veneer of objectivity.

Nene was doing what she always did on the weekends, surfing the net. She'd set up camp in front of her computer and was engaged in some 'social engineering' when she heard a knock on the front door. Annoyed she padded over and opened it. She stepped back when she saw Sylia standing in the doorway holding a box and a manila folder. She scowled.
"What do you want?"
Sylia wasn't as surprised as she normally would have been that Nene was still angry with her, even though Nene wasn't one to hold a grudge.
"To say I'm sorry."
"Nice thought, wrong house." Nene retorted.
"I know, I couldn't find Natasha's home address, only her PO box. Could you give this to her?"
Sylia handed her the manila folder.
"What's this?"
"It's my apology."
"And what's that?" Nene pointed to the box.
"Your dress. I really am sorry."
Nene looked up at her with a suspicious expression on her face.
"You're not just saying this to get me and Linna to come back are you?"
Sylia sighed. Nene was making this more difficult than she'd hoped. Plus she was partially correct.
"A little, I do want you two back. But I am sorry I said what I said the way I said it. I downloaded some of her work. It's good, misguided, but good. Can you please give that to Natasha tomorrow?"
Nene knew that Sylia would never apologize for her views but apologizing for her delivery was a start. As far as Nene was concerned Sylia had recognized she'd messed up so she was back in. She couldn't speak for Linna or Tasha but whether or not Natasha would accept Sylia's conditional apology wasn't up to her. Nene smiled and gave Sylia a hug.
"Ok, I'm back in. Thank you Sylia, she really is a good person, honest."
Sylia nodded.
"Thank you. I believe you."
"Hey, how am I supposed to explain how I got this?"
"Just tell her that you stormed in to return the dress and correct me and that I gave you that then. It's partially the truth."
Sylia turned and went back to her car while Nene waved from the door. Nene let the door close behind her and went back to her computer and dialed Linna's number. She answered after a few rings.
"Hey Linna. Guess what?"
"Oh hi Nene. What do you mean?"
"Sylia dropped by."
"Is she going to apologize?"
"In her own way, yes, she gave me something to give Natasha, so I'm gonna give it to her at work tomorrow."
"Oh that's great!"
"Yeah, I'm so relieved. Say do you want me to call her up and we can deliver it to her tonight?"
Linna felt her pulse race and she felt hot all of a sudden.
"Uh, I don't know, it's her weekend right?"
"Yeah I guess so, well I just wanted to call you and give you the news."
"Thanks, this is great, really. Well I'll Seeya tomorrow after work okay."
"Ok, bye."

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