Day 92

[from Vanishing Point]

By the time the elevator arrived at the top floor, Kiyoko was the only one still inside. She stepped through the open doors and found herself in a spacious, well-lit corridor that seemed to be deserted. "I'm on the top floor," she whispered into the headset, remaining quiet in spite of her apparent isolation.

Cobra's voice responded in her ear. "Good. Now, the CEO's office will most likely be on this floor. If it isn't, start checking the floors below. Remember to set off the fire alarm once you find it."

Kiyoko nodded. "Will do," she whispered.

Kiyoko started making her way through the corridor, glancing at the name plaques on each door as she passed them, checking to see if they were relevant. As she had suspected, she was the only person in the corridor, so she didn't need to worry about bumping into anyone and giving herself away. After following the corridor through a right-hand turn and then halfway down, she found what she was looking for; a door with a gilded plague that read, "SATORU OEYAMA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER". Oeyama… recognizing the name, Kiyoko gasped.

Cobra heard the gasp. "What is it, Kiyoko?" she asked. "Did something happen?"

"The CEO's name… it's Oeyama," she said. "Satoru Oeyama."

"So you found the office," said Cobra. "Alright. What's the significance of Oeyama?"

"Dr. Morgan's last name was Oeyama. She told me." Dr. Morgan was the lead researcher at the facility from which Kiyoko, Cobra and Hanako had escaped. She had confronted Kiyoko, and later all three girls, and tried to convince them to stay. They had refused, and on the latter occasion, after stealing the remote control for the entrance gates, Cobra had beaten Morgan unconscious before making her escape with the others. She had seemed fairly young, perhaps in her mid-twenties… "Do you think they could be related?" Kiyoko asked.

There was a pause while Cobra digested this information. "They could be," said Cobra. "That's certainly interesting. Now, let's get back on track. Can you see any fire alarms around?"

Kiyoko looked around briefly for a fire alarm. It didn't take her long to find one: there was one only a few yards further down the corridor, the bright red plastic standing out against the pale wall. Quickly heading over to it, Kiyoko lifted up the glass cover, then pressed the bright red button underneath.

Immediately, a loud bell began to sound throughout the corridor, and down through the whole building. Doors were flung open all around, and employees started filing out into the corridor in their droves. While most were walking, a few were running, panicking that there really might be a fire. Some were carrying stacks of paperwork or half-empty coffee mugs. Kiyoko swiftly flattened herself against the wall of the corridor, lest anyone accidentally bump into her.

In his office, Satoru Oeyama heard the fire alarm as well. He looked up from his paperwork, frowning slightly. He was a thin, ageing man, in his mid-fifties, with short, silvery-white hair. He reached out across his desk and pressed a button on his intercom. "Rika," he asked, "we didn't have any fire drills scheduled for today, did we?"

His secretary's concerned voice drifted through the intercom. "No, sir, we didn't," she said.

"Hmm…" Satoru put down his paperwork, got up from his desk and started to head towards the door, pondering the meaning of this disturbance. Could this be… them?, he wondered.

By the time Satoru entered the corridor, the crowd within was starting to thin out, becoming more orderly. "No running!" called out a high-level employee. "Keep calm and don't panic! I'm sure this is just a drill! Please make your way towards the fire escape in an orderly fashion!"

With the crowd thinning out, Kiyoko carefully made her way back to the door of Satoru's office. Once it was completely deserted once more, she tried the handle. The door would not open. "It's locked…" she muttered, disappointedly, before noticing a keypad next to the door, identical to those at the Shinsuke research facility. "Oh… I think I have to enter a passcode to get in."

"There's a keypad?" Cobra sighed audibly; through the crackly speakers it sounded like a rush of static. "Great… okay, well, we don't have time to figure it out, and if you get it wrong, we're screwed. You'll just have to shoot the lock on the door."

Kiyoko didn't seem too keen on this plan. "Shoot it?" she repeated.

"With the gun Kamui gave you," said Cobra. "Use the silencer, just in case there's anyone still around." The gun's noise would still be audible over the fire alarms, and in any case, the muzzle flash would still give her away.

"Okay," said Kiyoko nervously. She drew the handgun from its holster with a shaking hand, then retrieved a silencer from her left pocket and haphazardly screwed it onto the end of the barrel. Gripping the gun tightly in her shaking hands, she pointed it at the lock of the door, the silencer about a foot away from it. "I… I've never fired a gun before…" she mumbled.

"I never would have guessed," remarked Cobra sarcastically. "Just shoot the damn thing. Nobody will hear it over the fire alarms."

Kiyoko's index finger slowly curled around the trigger. She shut her eyes tightly, as though she could not bear to witness what she was about to do, and as she finally pulled the trigger she flinched away, a pained expression on her face. The muffled bang of the gun was barely audible over the fire alarm, and in a shower of splinters the lock of the door was blown apart, the door creaking open a little.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Kiyoko cracked open an eye to look at the damage. Upon seeing the destroyed lock, and the door now slightly ajar, she breathed a sigh of relief and lowered the slightly-smoking handgun. "I'm never doing that again," she said, unscrewing the silencer from the gun's barrel.

"You only shot a door, Kiyoko," Cobra replied, a little harshly. "Don't make such a big deal out of it. Shooting a person is a big deal, and I should know. Now, go in there and get what you came for."

Kiyoko nodded, as she holstered the gun and slipped the silencer back into her pocket. Pushing open the door, she nervously stepped into Satoru's office. It was large and spacious, the walls painted the same colour as the corridor outside. The left wall was covered in various posters, company memos, and newspaper clippings about Shinsuke Corporation, as well as what looked like a framed degree. The back wall was taken up by a single large window, giving a magnificent view of the Tokyo skyline, although Kiyoko was not exactly in the mood to appreciate it at the time. She had other, more important things to do.

A nameplate on Satoru's desk reiterated his name and status: "SATORU OEYAMA, CEO". Kiyoko crossed to the desk and sat down in the black leather swivel chair behind it, pulling herself up to the desk. The computer's screensaver had not started up yet, and was displaying Satoru's desktop; his background picture was of him and Morgan standing in front of Mount Fuji, smiling broadly. The sight was a little disconcerting. On the desk next to it was a framed picture of a young child with pink hair that Kiyoko assumed was also of Morgan. These two things seemed to settle the question of whether Satoru and Morgan were related.

"Cobra… there's a picture here of Satoru and Morgan together," she whispered into the mic. "I think they're father and daughter."

"That's interesting," Cobra replied. "I guess Mr. Oeyama believes in nepotism."

"Whatitism?" repeated Kiyoko, confused.

"I'll explain later," said Cobra dismissively. "For now, concentrate on getting that data."

"Okay." Kiyoko slipped her hand into her other pocket and pulled out the USB stick Kamui had given her. Plugging into the computer's USB port, the decryption program within immediately began to do its job, hacking Satoru's encryption protocols and laying his files bare. Not sure how to proceed, Kiyoko opened up his operating system's search function and typed in, "TEST SUBJECTS". "Let's see…"