Week 60: Conversation in Yokohama

Tansai pulled her shirt up over her mouth and nose, seeming to calm down. "Yeah. We could probably just rip, like, a giant claw off of something, stick it on a handle and call it a sword. That'd be cool."

"We'd better be able to. I promised Hugo you'd get out alive."

"Yeah, you could probably do something like that," Silvia replied, finishing her visual sweep of the area. "Remind me to tell you about the time when I...wait, you talked to Hugo?" Her voice audibly changed as she mentioned the ex-Fed, suddenly a lot less sure of itself. "I...I mean, there's no reason you shouldn't or anything, it's just that...what did you say?"

Tansai waved a hand around. "Something like `Sorry I didn't see psychic bullshit coming when Comoros were involved and accidentally got you high on naked guy brainwaves and out of your body, I'll try to be better organised.` It was just after that mission, and I said that I'd make sure you'd be okay here so he didn't worry...too much."

Silvia sighed, and then gave Tansai something that was probably a small smile. "Thanks. He...he does worry about me. Probably too much. And he doesn't worry about himself enough, either." There was a small frown at that. "Sometimes I'm not sure he realises how dangerous all this is. What would happen if...if somebody on our team died. Or maybe he does, I don't know. It's...hard to tell what he thinks about deep stuff sometimes."

Tansai shrugged. "He might just not like to talk about it. It's kind of depressing, you know? Though the last death we had kind of shook things up. Think it may have sent Ace a bit crazy."

"You mean...he wasn't always like that?" Silvia asked, with a reasonable degree of surprise. "I mean, just assumed..." She tailed off, unsure exactly how to complete the sentence without being insulting. "What...what happened, exactly? I mean, I've heard a few things, but nothing really solid. And it sounds like it was...kind of important." Her tone had changed to curious, but still cautious.

"Well, I didn't know him that well, but he was always...feddy. You know, saluting, following orders, all that stuff. He was usually the one to get us out of places too. We called it plan H, for helicopter. But...well, he was the one who got us out of places, and he let someone get captured and failed to buy him back. I think he's just decided that if he is in charge, then people won't die. Probably why he gives people stuff too." Tansai said, shrugging. "Guy doesn't know how to lead but he's trying to anyway."

"That...that sounds like a really bad idea," Silvia replied with a frown. "I mean...people trying to lead if they're not really cut out for it. Has that...does it cause problems? On missions, I mean." She was still talking cautiously, trying to make sure she didn't accidentally touch on sensitive issues. "Because it sounds like it really could."

"Not for me. He's argued with Han sometimes, but usually we just ignore him when he has a bad idea. Well, I do anyway."

Silvia nodded, carefully. "Fair enough. I'll...try and do that." She lapsed into silence for a moment, before speaking up again. "So...what exactly happened with this guy who was captured? Xun, was it? I mean, I've head bits, but nobody's actually given me a proper account or anything."

Tansai shrugged. "I'm not sure of the full details, but he pissed off this guy called Ban, who got a grudge against Xu and started doing stuff like bombings, breaking in and stuff like that. Then Ban kidnapped Han's girlfriend and they went to rescue her and Xu got captured and then sold, we didn't have enough to buy him, and then the SY won the bid and Xu got his head chopped up as a warning to traitors. They really hated him."

"Well, that...I guess that makes sense. I mean, from what I've heard. And that sounds like what...what they do to traitors." Once again, Silvia lapsed into silence for a moment, and then one of her hands crept up to her neck as if to check it was still there. Then, abruptly, she dropped the hand and looked at Tansai slightly sheepishly. "I...uh...I forget that means me. I don't...I don't feel like a traitor."

Tansai smiled, actually fairly kindly. "Yeah, you are I'm afraid. All of us in Oracle are." She patted Silvia on the side. "You are also breaking into one of their top secrets labs to steal important data. That's kind of treason."

"Yeah, that's true." Silvia managed a small smile at that. "But it doesn't...it doesn't feel like them. That's the thing. It's like this is another Corporation that just happens to be in the same place the SY used to be. It's so...surreal. They never used to be anything like this." She hesitated for a moment, thinking her statement over. "Well...not really. Not that I saw. I mean, you heard things, but...and now I'm more inclined to believe some of the things they said, but...they weren't like this. I never saw them do anything like...like this." She swept her hand around, trying to encompass all of their surroundings.

"Yeah...this makes it look like they looked at the Ai Jinn's old cities, and the WF's whole control and obey thing, and decided to one up them both."