Talk, Yo! -- 第六 Dairoku

[Sixth in a series]

Sundays were supposed to be solemn days for Kiro and his countrymen; even for the most irreverent of his kind. Most everyone would usually go to a temple nearby them for worship, to light incense sticks, lift up adoration to their gods, and offer prayers for their loved ones. The most insolent of his fellow nihonjin, however, simply took time to slow down from whatever contemptible lifestyle they were used to rolling with on a daily basis. Temple worship? Highly unlikely.

Kiro's mind wandered toward one particular unscrupulous malefactor. Although the specific person on his mind was a gaijin, he nevertheless speculated as to the sort of illegal downtime The Boss was up to today.

As he entered the lobby of the Takashiro Trade Tower, Kiro was careful not to raise any suspicion from the security team on duty since showing up to work on Sundays was not his norm.

"Overtime, Mister...?" Asano Kobayashi, the security officer on the ground floor, tried to make small talk while checking out Kiro's information on the computer monitor. "...Matsushita?"

"Well... 'yes' and 'no'. It's a little bit of work... but also... it's some... special thing that needs to be done today," Kiro sheepishly tried to act as cool as he could, remembering the instructions Agent Tanner meticulously laid out for him to follow to remain covert. "You know how it is, right Kobayashi-san? Something unexpected comes up and you have to just do what needs to be done at a drop of a hat," Kiro placed much effort into appearing very 'matter of fact' in what he was about to venture into.

"Totally! Happens a lot more to us, security people, I think. We seem to be on-call for anything, anytime these days," Asano concurred with Kiro's sentiment as he grants the programmer entry to the main elevator lobby of the building.

"Like doctors!"

"Exactly!"

"Well... when you're trying to make money, right?"

"You said it!"

"Gotta earn a living," Kiro confirmed his agreement with the security personnel on duty, and headed for the elevators. "Thanks for letting me in, yeah?"

"It's my job, Matsushita-san," Asano gave a slight bow in respect, adding, "Yours apparently waits for you up there. Have a good day."

"Yeah. I've got my work cut out for me actually. I'll probably be up there until about late afternoon, so....," Kiro paused for a while, trying to hide his anxiety about the job he was about to do for the Interpol. "Anyway... you have a good day as well, Kobayashi-san."

Kiro pressed fifteen. He took a deep breath as the elevator carriage began to open.

- - - - -

"Kiro, you have already been asked by your Boss to hack these companies and plant a bug that siphons all their transaction and financial records into his private mainframe for a yet undetermined use. What we're asking you to do is just one little step further from that."

Agent Timara Tanner took a calculated risk trusting Tokyo Tech Tank's top programmer -- and hacker -- in the hopes of for once getting at least a step ahead of the Interpol's mark and finally putting an end to his criminal activities.

"We've been actively running after Ellechim Preissler for the last two and a half years now and we've never been this close to gathering as much dirt on him as we could. We really need your expertise, Kiro."

"Wow. You guys are really invested in this case, huh?" the tech expert commented.

"Yes, we are..." Agent Tanner took a long pause. She decided to add one more angle to her appeal. "...but I am the most invested in this whole thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Kiro, this Preissler isn't just an ordinary criminal to me. He isn't just some mastermind that I've left a normal life and a possible romantic relationship behind to focus on and put an end to." She looks Kiro in the eye, saying, "Ellechim Preissler is my father."

"What?! Seriously?!" Kiro's eyes widened, eyebrows raised in astonishment. He looked away from Agent Tanner for a few seconds. He turned his gaze back to her and exclaimed, "That is so Empire Strikes Back!"

"What now?"

"Oh, um... nevermind." He gesticulates with his hands. "Not really important." Kiro brings the discussion back to the matter at hand. "So... I should still do what... your father... asked me to do?"

"Yes. But we need you to add a little something extra to that. As you place a software that funnels the information to Preissler, we want you to also make a way for us to monitor which company's transactions he's looking at or doing something with. You can do that with ease, I'm sure!"

"Yyyyyeah... not really. Ease? Not so much. Fear and trembling? Heck yeah!"

"You'll be fine, Kiro. Remember, we've been watching you for the past few months. We know what you are capable of. You can do this. We believe in you," Agent Tanner assured him, adding, "I believe in you."

"Wow! I... I never thought I'd be involved in this kind of James Bond-Mission Impossible level spy stuff. Um... If I do this, you guys got my back right?"

"Kiro, we've got people keeping an eye on you to protect you. And I will personally be monitoring your movements as you do this... spy stuff."

"Okay. Okay. I wanna do this. I wanna help make the world a better place by putting this rat bastard behind bars!" Kiro suddenly recalls Agent Tanner's relation to Preissler. "Um... Sorry."

"Oh no! Don't apologize. You're not entirely wrong about that. Anyway, rest assured that your part has little to no human contact; even Preissler won't know what hit him. Once you're done with the hack, you'll have nothing more to worry about."

- - - - -

Floor fifteen was totally isolated. No one else was there to work on anything. It was a Sunday after all.

Kiro proceeded to the Programming Department, then straight to his cubicle. He turned on his desktop computer, looked around to make sure no one else was around, and started the hack.

Half an hour later, Matsushita-san was completely immersed and lost in a sea of syntaxes and codes. He started feeling confident about succeeding at what The Boss -- and subsequently, what the Interpol -- was asking him to do.

"Almost there," he confidently muttered to himself. "I think I can pull this off!"

Just then, Kiro was supremely startled to feel a strong hand firmly planting a grip on his left shoulder. The presence of this intruder totally escaped his awareness.

"Pull off exactly what, Matsushita-san?"

Ellechim Preissler's tremendously imposing presence was hovering over him.

... to be continued ....