Chapter Six:

Fire Of Unknown Origin

Sylia glanced around at Michael’s apartment when she arrived. It was a normal sized apartment for Tokyo. It had a small kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and a bath. It looked like a single male’s home. He had pictures on the walls, musical instruments set up in one corner, and a small home theater in the living room.  She thought Michael had it well off for a police officer.

 For the past two hours Sylia and Michael had talked about the past several years. Sylia had offered her condolences about his mother. It seemed like the friends had not been separated.

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Priss’ arrived at ‘Hot Legs’ after eating her lunch. That encounter with Leon had almost made her late. She damned him the entire ride to the club. If that jerk would just take a hint and stop hitting on her! From the way Leon talked, it seemed that she was practically engaged to him. She didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

 She entered the club, not many people where here during the day, maybe thirty right now, from the way Priss counted.

 She walked into the back, passing the owner’s office. As she passed by, he called to her.

“Hey Priss! Could you come in here?” 

 ‘Oh great!’ she thought sullenly. ‘Another lashing for those gigs.’ Today wasn’t going well, especially with that run in with Leon. She shrugged and went into his office.

 “Priss, I want to tell you that…” he started. “… you don’t have to do those free performances. You and the Replicants pack this place all the time.”

 “Domo Arigato.” Priss said. She was grateful to the owner of the club, for letting her off the hook.

 Priss left his office, and headed towards her dressing room.

 ***********************************************

Leon was sitting at his desk, relating the incident to Daley Wong, fellow detective, and his partner in the A.D. Police. The office was crowded; officers running back and forth trying to get reports filed and filled out. Leon, however, never seemed to do either.

 “I can’t believe she did that!” Leon was in shock, not believing the scene Priss had caused.

 “Shouldn’t that tell you something, Leon?” Daley smirked from his chair. He looked up from filling out their report.

 “Should tell me what?” Leon kicked his feet up onto his desk. He glanced over at his friend with a questioning look.

 “That she’s not interested?!?!” Daley said, not believing that Priss’ message didn’t sink in.

 “I tell you Daley, my singing sweetheart is just playing hard to get.” Leon grinned.

 “Whatever Leon.” Daley went back to his work. “But Leon….”

 “Yeah Daley?” Leon knew what he was going to say next.

 Daley rested his chin on the top of his folded hands. He batted his eyelids. “….I’m always free….” He winked.

 Leon nearly fell backwards in his chair. No matter how many times Daley did that to him, he always found it amusing. Daley was gay, and he always ‘flirted’ with Leon. Sometimes he did it just to amuse Leon.

 “Not tonight, Daley. I’ve got a headache.” Leon countered him with. Just two partners and that played off one another. They watched each other’s backs when out on patrol. Leon wouldn’t want to work with anyone else.

 “McNichol!!!!!” The yell came from the chief’s open door.

 Leon’s feet flew to the floor. “What did I do now?” he said.

 “Looks like you are going to get it.” Daley smiled. Leon was always in the Chief Todo’s office. Either for breaking a rule or stepping out of police procedure.

 Leon got up and headed for the office. He thought about the incident this afternoon. Did Priss report him?

 As he entered the office, the chief motioned to a chair in front of the desk. “Have a seat McNichol, I need to talk to you.”

 “Chief, I swear, I didn’t know…..” He started to say to his superior.

 “Didn’t know what?” Todo asked. “Never mind, I don’t want to know what kind of trouble you’ve gotten into.” The Chief said.

 Leon blew a sigh of relief.

 “Anyway, “ Todo noticed Leon’s reaction, and ignored it. He didn’t want to know what Leon had done. “Is there any update on the incident from last night?”

 “Nada.” Leon frowned. “Comp/Analysis boys tried to salvage any data from its memory. They couldn’t find one single clue.”

 “Upstairs says that the incident is closed.” Todo crossed his arms, resignedly. “Just a boomer that went berserk before being shipped to GENEROS. GENOM’s R&D division destroyed it. It’s been smashed into thousands of pieces.”

 “You and I both know that’s bullshit!” Leon exclaimed, jumping up from his chair. “Someone activated the damn thing!”

 The Chief sat there unfazed by Leon’s outburst. “It’s over.”

 Leon was furious. “Tell that to Fukawara’s family. To Barstow’s, to Spencer’s!”

 “The families have been compensated by GENOM.” Chief Todo stated.

 Leon slammed his fist onto the desk. “More like paid off!”

 “Damn it, McNichol!” the Chief snarled back at him. “Get off of it!”

 The policeman looked at Todo with disbelief. “I can’t believe you! Don’t you want to know what really happened?!?!?!”

 “Believe what you want, Detective!” He didn’t give his opinion. “Upstairs says it’s closed. Then it’s closed!”

 Leon turned and stormed to the office door, and jerked it open. He turned to look at his superior officer. Huffing, he exited the office slamming the door.

 “Damn kid. You’ll get yourself killed with that attitude.” Todo replied. If Todo told upstairs what he wanted, he’d be fired years ago.

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Sylia drove home, after dropping Nene off at home. Both of them said their goodbyes, and they left. Michael now knew that he could contact either one of them if he needed to.

 Michael was still the same person that she remembered from all those years ago. He’d suffered a loss just as she had. And part of it was eating at him.

 Nene explained that Michael had been dating an AD police officer. Her name was Talia. She was killed about three months ago in the line of duty.  She was a frontline officer that was one of the first to get wiped out. 

 “Michael was right there when it happened. He never talks about it.” Nene added. “I think that he really thought she was the one for him.”

 It pained Sylia to think of what her friend was going through. “Michael.” She said in the empty car as she parked. Something about him reminded her of a certain someone.

*********************************************** 

Reginald Dickinson slammed down the phone receiver. “Damn it!” He screamed. His voice echoed through the office.

 His boomer secretary picked up on his displeasure. “Is something wrong, Mister Dickinson?” Stopping from her typing, to watch her boss. Watching his facial features, sensing their slightest change.

 He almost started to tell the boomer. “No……”

 She stared blankly at her master. “You sound tense sir.”

 “I’m not.” He tersely replied.  “Go back to work.” It  promptly returned to it's work.

 The voice on the phone had been helping him these last few months. He was in an executive position. He had impressed Quincy. Rumor had it no one impressed Quincy.

 Never.

 He was grateful to his mysterious benefactor. But the voice started to demand more. He’d helped his benefactor get a hold of classified information. Then he activated the RX-71 for him. Now ‘the voice’ had the remains of the RX-71. Which was ‘supposed’ to be destroyed.  If those two latter pieces of  information go out, everyone in Mega-Tokyo would be craving his blood, including his employer.

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