Day 94

[from Don't Say a Word]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2041

THREE MONTHS BEFORE RYUJI'S KIDNAPPING

Shizukesa's mission today seemed like a simple one, but it had taken a lot of planning. There were two targets: Kenji Hirayama and his wife, Aoko. They were both high-level researchers at Kasaiki Corporation, said to be working on something that could turn the tide of the battle for Japan in Kasaiki's favour. Mitsukashi were not prepared to allow Kasaiki to proceed with this research, and so the Hirayamas were to be put to death.

Tonight they had booked a romantic dinner for two at a restaurant on the sixtieth floor of one of Japan's tallest multi-purpose buildings. They had booked a table right next to the floor-to-ceiling window that took up an entire wall of the restaurant, providing them with a spectacular view of Tokyo at night. It was an excellent way to celebrate Valentine's Day, albeit a day late, though booking a table for the 14th would have been impossible, even for them. So the 15th was to be the date of their deaths; at least, if Shizukesa had anything to say about it.

After a intense discussion, it had been decided that the best way to kill them both at once without anyone realizing would be with a slow-acting poison, administered while they were at the restaurant itself. To this end, Shizukesa was currently impersonating one of the restaurant's waitresses, a woman named Rika Ochida. The real Rika Ochida was sleeping peacefully in her bed at home, having been administered some strong sedatives, and would wake up the following morning with no memory at all of the previous day. If anyone did end up suspecting Rika of the murders, she would have no way of defending herself. It was a clever plan, but it was by no means foolproof.

Shizukesa knew that, as with any of the plans Mitsukashi could have put into action that day, there were a million things that could potentially go wrong. It was impossible to prepare for all of them, but she had done her best. Her handgun was strapped to her thigh as ever, hidden beneath the knee-high skirt of her waitress uniform, and beneath said uniform she was wearing a prototype skin-tight bodysuit that Mitsukashi's R&D team had been working on. Theoretically, it was completely impervious to bullets, even machine gun fire, but it wasn't exactly comfortable. It was rather stifling, as well. She'd asked Mitsukashi to incorporate a cooling system into it, and they were working on doing so, but for the time being she was hot, sweaty, and chafing a little. Having to put on a smile and mime along to her holophone's pre-recorded speech snippets wasn't exactly helping her mood.

"Are you ready to order?" said the phone, in a voice completely different to the one she usually used. Her lips moved perfectly in sync with the synthesized voice, and to most people, it would be almost impossible to tell that she wasn’t the one actually speaking them. Almost.

The Hirayamas nodded in unison, putting aside their menus. "I'll have the chicken in the white wine sauce, please," said Kenji. "And you, dear?"

"I'll have the teriyaki, please," said Aoko. Good choices for a last meal, thought Shizukesa, as she typed the order onto the tablet computer that had belonged to the real Rika. It would then be wireless transmitted to the chefs in the kitchen, and when it was done, she would be notified automatically so she could bring it out to the waiting customers. It was a much more efficient system of ordering, but Mitsukashi had still seen fit to add something a little extra to it.

As Shizukesa pressed a button, a wireless signal was sent to the holophone in her breast pocket, telling it to play one of its pre-recorded messages. "And to drink?" mimed Shizukesa.

"One bottle of chardonnay, please," said Kenji. "Make it your best. We're celebrating tonight."

Shizukesa gave the couple a sickly-sweet false smile and typed a special message just for the two of them. "Oh, is that so?" she mimed. "Well, I hope you have a very special evening tonight, then!"

Kenji nodded in appreciation of the sentiment. "Thank you," he said.

Shizukesa bowed, and retreated to the kitchen to get the chardonnay bottle as well as two champagne glasses. This was the difficult part. The couple would no doubt want to open and pour the chardonnay themselves, so she couldn't simply pour two glasses and dissolve the poison into them. She couldn't inject the poison into the bottle, either, as the tampering would be spotted, nor could she tamper with the food, as she would have no opportunity to do so. The only way was to lace the glasses themselves with the poison, in such a way that the poison would not be noticed.

To this end, Mitsukashi had synthesized a tasteless, colourless powder that would dissolve harmlessly into the chardonnay once poured over it. For three hours, it would gestate inside them, doing nothing in particular. It would then begin to cause massive internal haemorrhaging that would kill them within minutes. Synthesizing such a poison hadn't been easy, and there was only enough for one go. In any case, if something went wrong, they wouldn't be able to try the same plan twice.

When nobody was looking, Shizukesa swiftly took the tiny sachet of poison out of her breast pocket, and sprinkled the colourless powder into both of the glasses. It settled nicely in the grooves in the bottom of the glass, and was completely invisible to the naked eye. From here on in, it was out of her hands. If the attempt was discovered, or they didn't drink the chardonnay for some other reason, she would have to resort to Plan B. For now, all that remained was to take the bottle and glasses out to them.

Carrying a silver tray with the chardonnay, poisoned glasses and her tablet all balanced on it, the fake waitress returned to the Hirayamas' table. "Sorry for the wait!" she said. "Here's your chardonnay and glasses! Can I get you anything else?"

Worryingly, Kenji proceeded to pick up the glass and examine it. "These glasses don't look clean to me," he said suspiciously. "Could we get some different ones, please?"

Shizukesa tried to keep her composure, typing a message she had been rehearsing beforehand though she had hoped she wouldn't be needing it. "I'm sorry," she said. "Those are the only glasses we have right now. I can assure you that they're nice and clean."

Kenji's eyes narrowed. It was clear that for some reason, he didn't trust her. "I'm not so sure," he said.

"Darling, if she says those are the only glasses, then there's nothing we can do," said Aoko. "They look clean enough to me-"

"Could you give me a minute to speak to my wife in private, please?" asked Kenji.

Shizukesa realized that things were starting to go south, but there was nothing she could do about it, short of switching to Plan B, which she wasn't quite willing to do yet. Instead, she simply nodded and moved away to another table. As a result, she didn't hear the resulting conversation between Kenji and his wife.

"Kenji, what's going on-?" asked Aoko, confused.

Kenji motioned for his wife to whisper, reaching across the table with his other hand and clutching his wife's hand tightly. He motioned at Shizukesa, speaking in hushed tones. "Listen to me very carefully," he said. "Do you remember we were warned about that assassin named Shizukesa? The one who might come after us due to our work? Well, I'm 99% sure that's her there. The waitress. I've suspected it ever since she first came to our table." He held up one of the glasses. "Don't drink the chardonnay, and don't drink from these glasses; she's probably poisoned them. The food might be safe, but we can't take that chance. Now-"

"Wait, wait, hold on," said Aoko. "You're telling me that this waitress is Shizukesa?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," said Kenji.

"But, how did she know where we would-"

"It's whatever corporation she works for," said Kenji. "Somewhere in that massive data cloud of theirs, they found out where we'd be today, and decided to use it to take us out."

"Well, what are we gonna do?" asked Aoko, starting to panic a little. "She's going to try and kill us some other way even if we don't drink the champagne, right?"

"Relax, it's alright," said Kenji.

"How is this alright?!" hissed Aoko. "An assassin is trying to kill us!"

"Keep your voice down," said Kenji. "We don't want to start a panic. Innocent people might get hurt. Now, listen to be very carefully. We're going to get out of here. I have a gun."

"You have a what?" repeated Aoko, shocked.

"Inside my jacket," said Kenji. "I bought it on the black market, so I could protect us, in case something like this ever happened. If she tries to stop us, I'll shoot her." He squeezed his wife's hand tighter, as she stifled a gasp. "We're going to make it out of here. I promise."

Before his wife could object, Kenji took a deep breath, and called Shizukesa back over. "Excuse me!" he called out.

Shizukesa put on her best false smile and returned to the table, tablet in hand. "Is there something I can help you with?" she asked.

"What did you say your name was again?" asked Kenji.

Shizukesa started to get a sinking feeling in her stomach, but she played along regardless. "Rika Ochida," she said. "It's been a pleasure to serve you today."

Kenji smiled wryly. "Are you sure it isn't Shizukesa?" he asked.

Rumbled. Somehow - perhaps simply through sheer paranoia and dumb luck - this man had seen through her disguise. But she still had the upper hand. Her smile slipped a little, but she remained fairly composed. "Quite sure," she replied. This was, technically, the truth: Shizukesa was only an alias, after all.

Kenji's hand disappeared into his jacket pocket, and Shizukesa watched as her covertly pulled out a gun, pointed it at her under the table, and audibly cocked it, while his wife looked on in mild terror. At this point, there was no sense in keeping up the charade any longer. Shizukesa's fake smile vanished completely from her face,  replaced by her usual cold, emotionless glare. Kenji's suspicions were confirmed.

"We're going to walk out of here now," said Kenji. "Me and my wife, together. If you try to stop us, I will not hesitate to shoot you. Is that understood?"

This time Shizukesa's lips did not move. "I'm afraid I cannot allow that," she typed.

"Well then…" Kenji's finger tightened around the trigger, as he prepared to fire.