Pandion (Genera #1)

Chapter 33

T here had been no word from Kagesawa for two hours since he’d said he’d handle it, whatever it had been. Harumine was wrapping up his meeting with the students and organising the first of the departures for the evening.

The students seemed capable of handling it themselves but lacked the confidence to take charge. Harumine had seniority, so no one questioned him giving out the orders. It was not a comfortable role, but with no one else willing to take it on, he was stuck with it for now.

Are you OK? I’m done here. I can come over if you need help. The link wasn’t dampened, and there were no signs of trouble, but it was difficult to read what was going on. Kagesawa’s lack of communication was a little worrying, but he seemed busy with something.

Kagesawa? Hello? No answer. He wasn’t asleep. He didn’t seem distressed. Tsuyoshi? Can you hear me? Usually this would do the trick… This time it did not.

“Excuse me, I think I need to go find my link.”

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know… I don’t think so, but he’s not answering.”

Harumine could tell Kagesawa was still somewhere on the upper floors, but it seemed he’d crossed the skybridge into the other building. He’d said something about Fujitani-sensei, so maybe they’d gone into her office. Harumine headed up.

Can you project a calm mental state to Satoru for me, so he doesn’t worry? Also, if you can come up with a workable scenario to escape, do share.

The two men pushed Kagesawa across the skybridge. Fujitani-sensei and the other woman seemed to be communicating something wordlessly, walking ahead. The other woman, presumably Fujitani-sensei’s link, disappeared into the lift while Fujitani-sensei led everyone else down the corridor to the other end of the building.

“This way, gentlemen.” She guided them through an empty lecture hall to a smaller conference room at the back.

You wouldn’t by any chance have the layout of the building memorised in there, would you? How far up is this? Is there a way to escape through the window?

You seem fond of exiting through the window, but I would advise against it. There is nothing to hold on to out there. Can’t we use the door?

The two men behind me will probably object to that.

“ It’s nothing personal, Kagesawa-san, but we can let you roam free for only so long.” Fujitani-sensei closed the door behind her.

“I don’t mind taking my leave if I’ve overstayed.”

“At stage 50, it’s only a matter of time before you go insane, and we cannot have that.”

“Is that the official story?”

“You are out of control. This is why it’s so dangerous to have DEFD and be linked. It makes one unpredictable and aggressive.” She sighed. The two men she’d brought tightened their grip on Kagesawa.

“Right.” They did indeed plan to off him and use that as an excuse. “It’s got nothing to do with the fact that around stage fifty the organism will have developed enough to start communicating.”

“Has it already—?” She checked her palm reader. “I suppose it’s possible.”

“Shouldn’t you, as an advocate for the organisms, be more interested in what they actually want?”

“Hah.” She seemed a little distracted checking her data. “I didn’t peg you as the na?ve type.”

“So, what are you waiting for?”

“Are you in a hurry? Don’t worry, this really won’t take that long once my colleague returns with the equipment. You see, as risky as it is to have you wandering around, you are stage fifty. I don’t meet such developed specimens every day. It would be a shame to merely ‘zap’ you as you put it.” She didn’t seem interested in negotiating. The only reason she was humouring his questions was that she was waiting for her friend.

“You could have at least made the preparations without me.”

“There weren’t that many chances to grab you without that link of yours hovering around. My apologies, but this was the best we could do. Sit down. Your fidgeting is making me nervous.”

“Was I…?” Kagesawa hadn’t noticed, but he was indeed tapping his fingers to his side while swinging a bit back and forth. He was vaguely aware of doing these things when he was trying to think but usually only when it was causing someone else discomfort.

He sat down at the table but bounced his knee under it instead.

She seems to want to poke you with a stick. It’s probably not going to be pleasant. I don’t mind what she does to me, but I don’t think it’s fair to you since you didn’t choose any of this. If you want me to do something, let me know.

This organism probably would have gone to someone else had Kagesawa not wanted to become an empath, but at least it would have never reached the maturity to understand how unfulfilling and short its life would be. Kagesawa felt sorry for it as well as bad about his own involvement.

I’m afraid your physical capabilities are insufficient for retaliation, but there’s a chance we might outrun them, if we can get loose.

The two men holding him had allowed him to take a seat, but there was a heavy hand placed on his shoulder as a reminder he was not free to move.

It doesn’t look good. Kagesawa couldn’t see a way out of this. He could try, but the choices seemed to be varying degrees of pain while the result remained the same. Self-harm is an option, I guess. Committing a suicide might be unexpected enough to not leave the guards enough time to intervene. At least he’d be going by his own hand and robbing her of the additional data she was after.

I don’t understand. The organism was fairly smart and understood a lot, but it was still in its infancy.

She’s hoping to get something out of us. We may not be able to escape alive, but we could annoy her by not letting her have what she wants.

There was a knock on the door, and Fujitani-sensei’s link entered the room with a briefcase.

“I’d sedate you, but that would interfere with the data. Don’t worry, the pain won’t last for long, and it’s going to be much more pleasant to welcome death as an end to suffering than to have to fear it.” She gagged Kagesawa in preparation.

Time is running out. What do you want me to do? Kagesawa asked the organism. He could tell the organism was calculating something.

Fujitani-sensei inserted something into the port. It was not the usual sort of electrodes or a connector. The irritating chafe of the EI T-60 was a welcome light breeze in comparison. Kagesawa winced from the pain.

“Calm down, it’s not even on yet.” She gave way for her two male associates, who took a hold of him to stop him from moving. “Make sure he stays still. I want clean data.” She laid out the contents of the briefcase and opened the laptop included in the set.

Do you have a name? Do you want one before we die? It was a little late now, but with nothing else to give, it was all Kagesawa could think of.

A name? I thought ‘organism’ was my name.

No, that’s what we call all of your kind. Do you want one that is specific to you?

But I am all of my kind. Why do I need something specific?

I don’t know. Because you’re special? I’d like to call you something other than just ‘organism’ while I still can. You’re special to me.

Oh, like when you call Mentor ‘Satoru’ and not ‘Harumine’ like the others?

Something like that… There wasn’t time to explain it any better. Do you want one?

What would be good? As the organism mused on this, Fujitani-sensei turned on the contraption she was using. A sharp pain shot from the back of Kagesawa’s head and through the tendrils. His scalp itched and tingled aggressively. The tendrils activating in this way reminded him of the way they’d supposedly removed and replaced his organism. Soon, he’d be cut off from it. It would still be there though, he’d just no longer have access to it.

How about Satoru2? The organism had some sense of humour left. Kagesawa laughed in spite of the pain.

Let’s make it something unique to you, all right?

Does it have to be unique? It sounded like it didn’t appreciate the treatment it was getting, so there probably wasn’t much time left to debate this.

No, I guess not. Did you have something in mind? The itching and tingling were turning into a sharp burning sensation. The pain was getting worse, but Kagesawa could tell it wasn’t his pain.

Seimei, it requested.

Harumine navigated through the corridors, trying to peer through the little windows on the doors to see if there was anyone in the lecture halls. He could sense Kagesawa nearby, but the nearest hall was empty and quiet.

While double-checking the two adjacent halls, he heard something from the corridor. Returning to see, there was no one around. He’d definitely heard something, though. Curiously enough, one of the doors was open.

Are you here? Please respond to me. He’d tried yelling, but neither it nor pleading seemed to make a difference. Something was terribly wrong. The link had been broadcasting a steady stream of bland for a while now. It was unnatural.

Harumine slipped into the empty lecture hall.

The afternoon light was slowly fading. The view of the city horizon through the glass wall was turning calm blue, making the ambient light seem surreal. Harumine was interrupted from his moment of mounting dread by a splat. He turned to look but could see nothing out of the ordinary.

It had been a splat, though, right? It had sounded decidedly wet. Was there a tap and a basin somewhere at the other end of the room? No? He walked closer, hesitating, not really wanting to find out what had made the sound but unable to let it be. From this distance, he could tell there was something, someone on the floor.

“What in the world…?”

At first glance, the long hair made his heart skip a beat, but once over the initial shock, he could see it was clearly a woman. Her hand was stretched out in front of her, but that was as far as she’d gotten. There was no pulse upon Harumine checking, but she was still warm. She’d been alive only a moment ago.

Cold sweat formed at the back of Harumine’s neck as he checked where she’d come from. There was a door, ajar, no more than three metres from where she lay. Kagesawa was beyond there. Was he all right? What was happening? Had the organism morphed into something? Had he finally lost his mind completely and gone on a rampage?

“Kagesawa?” Harumine entered the conference room. It was dark. “Are you in here?” He was very close by, but triangulating the exact position through the link was impossible under normal circumstances, much less when the other half was not cooperating.

Harumine turned on the light. A few of the light fixtures remained off, dangling down from the ceiling, but there was plenty enough light for Harumine to see the pool of blood he was about to step into. He yelped and took a step back. Some ways to the side, Kagesawa sat slumped at a desk with his hair loose and damp. He looked up, but his eyes were vacant.

“What the hell happened?!” Harumine tried to make his way across without stepping on anything. “Fujitani-sensei…?” She lay there with her neck at a confusing angle. Next to her, a man had been practically sliced open from the middle. He was the source of most of the blood. Another man lay a little to the side, cut in a similar fashion.

“Did you…?” Harumine glanced at Kagesawa, afraid to finish the question. Kagesawa slumped back down until his forehead hit the table and finally replied with a very hoarse “no”.

“What is this shit you’re projecting to me. Stop it!” It felt like Kagesawa should have been having a pleasant cup of tea with a biscuit, reading a book by the fire.

“I can’t.” Even the dry raspiness of his voice sounded painful.

“I can take it.”

“No, I physically can’t.” He tried to straighten himself up.

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“I can’t reach Seimei anymore.”

Right. He was obviously not right in the head. Was he in shock, or was this now the permanent state of things? “Who did this? Are we in danger?” Was he supposed to try to force Kagesawa back on his feet and flee or…?

“I need a moment. Hurts.”

“Are you injured? Should I call someone?”

“Not now.” He took a deep, laborious breath and continued to lie over the table.

“I’m going to go get help. Wait here.” He didn’t seem like he’d run off in that state, so Harumine hurried out and to the lifts. Once on the ground floor, he heard a scream.