“You're right: the noodles are good,” Domino sighed as she set her empty bowl at the side of the bathtub. She sank lower in the hot water and leant her head back, feeling some of the fatigue slowly easing from her muscles as NaiNai's special blend of bath salts worked its magic.
“Aren't they always?” Angel responded, peering through the grey light cast by the screen of Koralev's laptop.
“Mmmm...” Domino smiled back, her eyes closed now as she gave in to the steam and sweet scent of the bath. She listened to the faint sound of Angel's fingers on the Samsung's keyboard as she delved among its secrets. Drifting somewhere above that sound were the voices from an old 20th century television serial which NaiNai watched and re-watched with almost religious frequency.
NaiNai was brewing tea out on deck and Domino could picture the old lady, her body a human question mark, calmly preparing the cups as her eyes surveyed life on the surrounding boats. She heard NaiNai's voice raised in greeting to one of her neighbours as they struck up a conversation about the TV drama. Domino chuckled to herself; the tea would be a long time in arriving.
“Your tattoo is glowing. Feeling content?”
“Very.”
Angel's query referred to the image of a phoenix emblazoned across most of Domino's back. The tattoo had the appearance of a traditional 'irezumi' body marking, but was comprised of reactive chemicals which fluoresced in response to strong shifts in emotion. She opened her eyes slightly to see that a soft green glow diffused through the water around her.
This dim light played across the curved roof of NaiNai's home, finding the many trinkets, clothes and blankets she stored up there, all held in place with military surplus webbing. Quite how NaiNai managed to fit so many things in a space the size of a small one bedroomed apartment was a perpetual mystery. Even now, Domino was still discovering new finds to marvel over, be it a small snow globe or previously concealed cupboard. There were few places she could truly relax but this, she decided, was one of the best. It was snug, maybe even cosy here and always elicited a feeling she associated with those brief moments of happiness she remembered from childhood.
“It's a relief to be one step closer. And... it feels good to be here with you and NaiNai,” she said this last in a small voice, the frank admission bringing a flush to her skin.
She couldn't quite read Angel's expression in that moment and so she hurriedly changed tone.
“Have you found anything in there yet?”
Angel shrugged.
“Not really, not yet. Anyway, shouldn't you be unwinding? Why don't you dry off and try to get some sleep? I can wake you when I'm done. It'll take a while to sift through all this...” she tapped the laptop, “...the old fashioned way.”
“That sounds like a good idea... such a wise head on such young shoulders,” Domino teased.
“Yeah, yeah. Now be quiet and leave me to work.”
Domino eased herself out of the small Japanese-style tub and was surprised to find her body trembling as she stood. She had not been so exhausted in a long time. Suddenly she felt very small as she rubbed herself dry with the rough towel NaiNai had left for her. She glanced down and saw that a loose knit pullover, very similar to that worn by Angel, had been neatly folded there with a note bearing her name in immaculately inked Korean.
She gladly pulled on the soft garment and half-stumbled over to the kotatsu, settling herself into a half-covered foetal position. Lying there, surrounded by the comforting jumble of NaiNai's accumulated possessions, the warmth beneath the old table soothing her near naked body, Domino let herself finally succumb to the sleep she had starved herself of for so long.
She woke from dreams of passion and cherry blossoms to find NaiNai watching over her, ancient hands working on an equally ancient clockwork radio she had salvaged years ago. White noise interspersed with an ethereal voice singing an old Russian lullaby filled the space between them.
“Umm... where's Angel?” Domino murmured through gummed-up lips.
“Toilet.”
“Oh. How long did I sleep for?”
The old woman seemed to consider this at length before chuckling to herself, as if recalling a humorous anecdote.
“Three meals, you've turned down.”
Domino blinked at this cryptic response, foggily attempting to find some logic there. As lucidity returned to her, she remembered disengaging her cyberbrain input while bathing. The ephemeral blue lines of her optic display came back online and provided her answer, the date/time readout blinking 23:22 03/03/27.
“I was out for twenty hours?!” she moaned hoarsely.
“Not out: sleeping.”
“It's the same thing, NaiNai...”
“Not the same. Don't talk when unconscious.”
That set alarm bells ringing.
“Ah... what did I talk about?”
NaiNai suddenly found the tip of her screwdriver deserving of intense scrutiny.
“Nothing. I pull your leg, make top notch joke.”
Domino was sceptical.
“Yeah... top notch... You sure I said nothing?”
NaiNai nodded her head so fast it resembled the workings of the radio she held. Suddenly she gestured over Domino's shoulder to the front of the cabin where an old style squat toilet had somehow been plumbed into a tiny privacy stall.
“Angel be back soon.”
And, somewhat bizarrely, at that precise moment the toilet flushed. Angel emerged and moved to wrap Domino in an affectionate hug.
“You okay? Sleep well?” she whispered as she kissed Domino lightly on her forehead. Her voice carried an unusually strong undercurrent of concern.
“I think so...”
Now Domino was convinced she must have been restless in her sleep. But what had she said? She stretched hints of night cramps from her muscles as Angel settled under the kotatsu next to her. At the touch of Angel's skin against her own, she was reminded of how she had teased her friend the night before. So much had happened since then and yet there remained so much to do...
Angel used one of NaiNai's many archaic novelty lighters to light a Mild 7 and gently offered it to Domino's lips. She inhaled deeply, rolling the welcome flavour of the smoke around her mouth before allowing it to escape in a lazy, drifting plume. She squeezed Angel's thigh in gratitude under the blanket, at the same time feeling a little silly that she felt the need to conceal the demonstration of intimacy.
“Aah... so close, you girls. It's nice to see.”
No, not much escaped NaiNai's notice.
“Now you are like twins with your new pullovers, eh?”
The two young women found themselves giggling at this notion as they shared a conspirational glance. Their surrogate grandmother joined them in laughing, her dry chuckle filling the houseboat.
“See, so close... Good that you are happy. Now, you need food. Wait here.”
As NaiNai hobbled out to her on-deck kitchen, their fits of giggles subsided, leaving the two sharing a cigarette in mildly embarrassed silence. After a time, Domino felt her nagging doubts about what she may have disclosed in her sleep return.
“Angel...” she started uncertainly.
“Yeah?”
“NaiNai said I talked in my sleep.”
Angel let slip a resigned sigh.
“A little, yeah.”
“What about?”
“Nothing to worry about, Yuki-chan. You were just restless at times, maybe having a few nightmares. Nothing made much sense but I could tell it was them, haunting you again,” she paused and took hold of Domino's hand, squeezing it rhythmically, soothingly. “I can't wait for you to be free of it all.”
Domino nodded slowly.
“Maybe I never will be,” she breathed.
“We're gonna make sure you are. Together.”
Domino could sense how desperate Angel was to reassure her, how much she wanted to make it all right. And in that moment she felt a hot rush of emotion: of love, of sadness, of hope, and she felt like sobbing. As if she were sharing that same confusion of feelings, Angel suddenly became more playful, a wicked gleam appearing in her eyes.
“Anyway, that dream you were having just before you woke... that one didn't sound bad at all. I'm just wondering who it was about...”
Domino blushed furiously and pushed her friend off balance so she fell onto her side.
“Leave me alone!” she pouted. Their laughter resumed and Domino began to feel herself relax again as Angel initiated an almost childlike play-fight. It would be some time before either of their thoughts returned to Koralev's laptop and the information it contained.
Cables, screens and consoles littered almost the entirety of Angel's loft apartment. What little space was left in amongst all of her techno-clutter was given over to animé memorabilia, empty Boss coffee cans, Nissin noodle cups and many, many throw pillows and body-hug beanbags. All of this was illuminated by the glow from holofeeds, network readouts and thousands of tiny LEDs, these last arrayed across her ceiling in a pattern she had once referred to as 'digital constellations'.
Domino had always enjoyed visiting Angel at her home. She loved the total disregard for anything resembling fashion and the complete lack of pretence, the way the apartment was a jumbled mirror of her friend's personality. More than anything though, she was fascinated by the contrast between Angel's sleeping area and... well, everything else. The 'bedroom' area of the open plan space was an oasis of neat and a celebration of all things pink and girly.
She found Angel there, half on, half off the bed and drooling slightly into a hard copy manga she had been reading before dozing off. Reluctant to wake her, Domino crept over to what passed for a kitchen and busied herself making coffee. She was into her second cup and half-reading one of Angel's innumerable, incredibly rare manga when she heard movement from the bed.
“Mmmff...” Angel groaned and stretched, “why didn't you wake me?”
“You need sleep too.”
“Guess I do,” Angel said through a yawn as she rolled off the bed. She selected a small pink vest to match her panties from a drawer and tugged it sleepily over her head before brushing glossy blue-black hair from her face.
“Oooh, fresh coffee!” she said with glee as she moved to join Domino at the breakfast bar.
“So, have you managed to finish with Koralev's laptop yet?”
“Oh, I did that back at NaiNai's place. I just wanted to get set up here before we start using what I found.”
“What did you find?”
“Well...” Angel responded around a mouthful of chocolate she had procured from beneath a heap of printouts, “the system's quite clever, really. Simple, but clever. Each machine like Koralev's is hooked up to an intranet, totally isolated. No outside access, they only talk to other machines on that network.”
“Okay...”
“The thing is, the intranet is also hierarchical. Koralev's machine only talks to one other: his immediate superior and, I suspect, the only boss he is aware of.”
“You mean he had no knowledge of the syndicate or Yamada's company?”
Angel shook her head.
“I seriously doubt it. The contact he was reporting to limited his access to that level of information.”
“So his machine's useless after all?”
“No, it's really useful!” Angel reported happily. “With the data I found, I've built a dossier for you on his boss: who she is, where you can find her, levels of security, all that good stuff.”
“I knew there was a reason I keep you around,” Domino smiled.
Angel pulled a face.
“Not only that but there was enough in there to tie the corporation to street crime and other nastiness, so we can hurt Yamada and the syndicate financially if you wanted.”
Domino considered this for a moment.
“Let's look into that later. For now we should focus on gaining access to the top levels of Yamada's intranet. Can you send me the dossier you've compiled?”
“Sure,” Angel smiled. “You should be able to access it now.”
A 'new mail' icon blinked in the corner of Domino's heads up display and as she opened it she saw that Angel had worked up an interactive 'walk-through' for all the information she had collated. This made it easy to browse massive amounts of data, her networked consciousness exploring a virtual space which housed everything from text readouts to audio and video files. Once she had gained an overview of her next target, she shifted her focus back to the apartment. Angel was sprawled on her bed again, absorbed in her manga.
“That's some really nice work, Angel. You didn't have to program such a fancy interface.”
Angel looked up from her book, beaming with pride.
“I know. But it was fun!”
“So, Capricia Morucci is the next rung on the ladder. Any idea if her laptop will get us to Yamada?”
“I'm nearly certain of it. I did a little digging and it seems like she and Yamada have a 'thing' going. She's also his number two, so to speak. So it's probable that her machine will have a direct link to his.”
“And this pit fight club she runs is the best option for getting in close?”
Angel nodded enthusiastically.
“I think so. Word is she's shopping around for a new bodyguard. She always hires via the pit fights; winner gets the job.”
“Okay, sounds good. Looks like she's running one tomorrow night. I'll find myself an invite then pay her a visit.”
“I'll work up some data on fixers attached to the place so you can set it up.”
“Thanks. Can you send it to me? I'll get moving, save time.”
“Okay, Yuki-chan. But be careful, please.”
Domino paused at the door and turned to give Angel a reassuring smile.
“You know I will be.”
Angel watched Domino slip through the door and sighed wistfully. No matter how careful Domino might be, it didn't change the fact that her path of vengeance would always be dangerous.
At least she has me to help...
Angel dived back into the net with a renewed determination in an urgent bid to provide as much assistance as she could. With all the links and nodes of the near infinite web speeding by around her, each site and subnet a luminous dot offering the promise of new information, her eyes glazed over and her body fell limp on the bed as she gave herself over completely to supporting Domino.
Copyright © A. Flood 2010
Copyright © A. Flood 2010
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