Session 15: Sub Rosa - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

304 Bezos 1 Earth–2 Fire

The team returns from a very big day and crashes, with plans to take the following day off to rest and recuperate. Kat wants to see more of the world, but Kira and Kniffin double-team her: she should stay and help with Moopsie: the Xiao Ma attack on Shiori got Kira worrying, though she knows it’s long odds, about an Imperial kidnapping team.

Rina spends the day watching anime and eating popcorn shrimp in bed. Rook is working on the submarine turret, and considers that a plenty fun day. Lane goes shopping with Madison, who’s in a mobility scooter/fish tank thing. They make a day of it, along with a nice lunchtime rendezvous somewhere, and checking in on Rina. She comes back for the evening to check on everything, and brings Madison with, to her mermaid-adapted room.

Over at TreeHouse R&D, a team from the Wreck arrives: Nymphie and two human mercenaries, each with a cat on their shoulders. They’re here to deliver Mothball and Nibbles, the Clowder’s spies to be infiltrated into Shenzhou once Rina gives the word. Also, they’re going to pick up Shiori to return to the Clowder for interrogation.

Nymphie looks Shiori over: she doesn’t do biology – this is all Moopsie’s area, and the kind of professional challenge that might get her head back in the game. She talks Kniffin into her and Moopsie coming down for a technological interrogation before Shiori heads back to the Clowder for a strategic interrogation.

Coming out of the interrogation, Moopsie wants her lab back, stat, plus cloning facilities, plus – a long list of equipment. And! Cat body murder! The Xiao Ma must die!!!!!!

That evening, Lane checks in on the team before retiring to her mer-friendly suite with Madison. Moopsie takes her aside: she needs to ask for help. She wants her lab back, and facilities to recreate the kind of work Shiori was doing: she says that the impulse to scoop Shiori’s brain out and transplant hers into Shiori’s body was a strong one. She’s missing cat-hood (and not exactly saying she’s come to regret the transfer into Flamingo Grievious’s body, but - ). She’s definitely not enjoying having the AI Alice as a mental roommate.

Lane says they’ve all been very worried about her – and maybe Tiffany would be interested in funding something like this. Knowing Tiffany invested in the highly successful synthetic gut business, and owns the Horizon Group, the most elite full-body-replacement company, Lane works up a business plan for a genetic transformation operation, and calls Eloise to pitch it. The pitch is complete overkill, and Eloise has no choice but to agree. There will be a finder’s fee later, after all the startup costs are amortized. She’ll get started immediately, but Moopsie should get onsite as soon as she can. Moopsie takes well to the news. After ripping Zhukov’s legs off, she’ll throw herself into the new business.

The next morning the core team leaves for Shenzhou, minus the entourage, who stay back at the resort.

The team flies into Shenzhou on a TreeHouse corporate shuttle. The airport has inspectors. And paperwork. But on seeing Rina, suddenly they’re waved right on through.

Out on the street, instead of a cab, a solid half dozen security vehicles pull up, disgorging riot troops in armor, opaque helmets. Except for one, a youngish woman in some sort of cheap rent a cop uniform.

“Shui Cheng, Metropolitan Police. We need to talk.”

Lane asks, “May I ask what we need to talk about?” “Not on the street, ma’am.”

Rina: “We just got here! How can there be fines already? Can we just pay them?”

The team is carefully disarmed and loaded into the back of an armored van, along with two troopers with riot shotguns held ready. Rina hisses at them, and they seem unnerved by that. Her tail is very puffy.

They’re escorted into a low ferrocrete building and then separated, each led into the kind of room they’ve seen in a million holo-novels: one metal chair, one metal table, a light shining down onto the chair, a large clearly one-way mirror across from the chair. It’s interrogation time.

Lane appears very cooperative but not weak or nervous, though she might be a little bit! She’s not that convincing. Cheng starts in on her: You’re revolutionary agents in the pay of a foreign corporation. Why are you in Shenzhou?

“We’re here to do business with the University – I wouldn’t know what business revolutionary terrorists would have to do!”

“And where did you get your doctorate?” This leads to a long discourse on academic staffing 😊

Cheng asks about the spaceplane theft.

“Sometimes things happen when we’re there – that doesn’t mean we’re the cause of them! We are not revolutionary at all!”

“So it has nothing to this charge of mass murder and sabotage on a sea platform?”

“If Zhukov is guilty of something, he accuses others -you should go after him!”

“He’s not in my jurisdiction!”

“I haven’t done anything in your jurisdiction yet!”

“Why do you have a Xiao Ma Triad in your group?”

“Not all catlike people are Triad or terrorists – she’s very sweet! I think there’s been some mistaken identity here. We are not the revolutionaries!” “You see, last time you were in a northern city, you stole a major Imperial asset and kidnapped a princess.”

“Princesses can come and go as they choose! Did anybody want money? Has there been word the princess is not happy? As for the missing asset, well… Sometimes certain assets really do belong to other people. If two corporations are fighting over assets, that’s not my business, is it? I did not take anything out of there – personally – “

Lane is stunningly convincing! Cheng asks what she can do to atone for the misunderstanding. “You can let us know where we can have a nice lunch and do some shopping.” Cheng nods and leaves.

Rook was left to stew for a while before anyone arrived. It’s cold AF in the room, and she’s been sitting on a metal chair under the watchful eye of a riot trooper. A thin man in that same cheap uniform enters: he seems disappointed, sympathetic. Revolutionaries, terrorists, Triad – how did a nice engineer like you get involved with criminal lowlifes?

Rook goes on and on about 4I and Uncle Carbide ; she was too young! “There were pamphlets! On real paper! Sometimes people do rash things like murder trees for pamphlets, but I was like 12!”

The interrogator is having a hard time getting back on script. A very hard time.

“Why do we build platforms on the sea anyway? Why not just come up with a great boat design, and then we wouldn’t have this problem of murdering people on them! And prostitution was legal when I was doing it and I needed food, and then Uncle Carbide came along and said I can make more money as an engineer – well, maybe not if you were better at prostitution than I was..”

“I think your guy’s power suit has something wrong with the left knee – he should get that looked at in case he has to run after anyone and it seizes up!” The trooper bends his knee and it goes ERRRK!

Rina’s under the table hissing at her guard. They have a staring contest. That poor cop is just terrified. Cheng enters, and dismisses the trooper. She seems like she’s had too long a day. “I think we can resolve this quickly. Bottle of water? Saucer of milk? I just have a few questions.” She wants to know about the cats down south and how they’re different.

“Oh you mean like the bad cats up here? I’m going to rip their faces off. I’m not Triad! Triad’s stupid – we have to wear dresses when we visit the Triad!” “Did you know those cats have two brains? That’s gross! You should arrest them all!”

Discovering that she’s found an ally of sorts, Cheng is ready to wrap this all up. Everyone is led from their interrogation rooms into the hallway. Jiefan has a black eye and the start of a huge forehead bruise. The skinny cop has a taped nose with rolled up tissues stuffed up each nostril. “He was rude!” “I was!”

Cheng looks them all over. “All right, it looks like we got some bad intel, and I jumped to conclusions. On behalf of the Shenzhou PD, you have my sincere apologies.” She bows deep. “Now, I know we got off on the wrong foot – or nose – and you don’t owe me anything. You’re free to go. But I’ll buy you dinner and drinks – out of my own pocket – if you’ll hear me out.”

The teams agree it’s better to have cops on their side. And Rina adds, maybe fish?

Definitely fish. After several appetizer courses and polite chat, Shui Cheng gets down to it.

“I’m genuinely sorry: we put two and two together and got five. I’m the head of the anti-corruption task force – the single worst job in town. Almost nobody’s willing to push back against the Xiao Ma, and they’re out of control. The Chiu Chao group – well, I know things work differently down south. Here, they do things we don’t like, but they keep them orderly. Handle their own problems. We don’t have to like it, but they’re the best of bad options. But the Xiao Ma have taken them over from within – they’re running everything but the ports. And they’re messy. And greedy. Both of those are bad for business, and the biz establishment is finally taking note. So I have a “Task Force” that could hold meetings in one of those interrogation cells. We’re nibbling at the edges, but we’re not even slowing them down.

“The one thing I don’t want is a full-scale war in this town –“

Rina just blinks at her.

“We really didn’t murder all those people on the sea platform, we weren’t lying about it – they were dead when we got there!” – Rook. “We’re just some people who do some work for other people, we’re not complicated.”

Rina says this is a cat issue – they’re bad cats and we’re going to fix it.

Shui Cheng makes her offer – on behalf of the local business elite. Lane is happy to deal, Rina has to talk to Grandpa – and makes a note that the Clowder needs to send a representative to handle the negotiations – someone more senior than her.

Lane gets an Agent call from Dr. Delucca. Where are you?! You missed your appointment with the Dean! He was already thinking this deal is kind of sketchy, and then you go and blow him off?

“We got arrested! Then we got taken to dinner!”

They reschedule for first thing the next morning.

304 Bezos 2 Water

The Emerald Blossom got the team used to staying in nice places, but that was a resort: this is a Luxury Hotel, with capital letters. Though the lobby floor being entirely synthetic diamond is a bit much.

They head up the tower to the next-to-top floor, where they’ve landed a corner suite. The door, keyed to Lane’s agent, opens automatically. Before anyone can step in, Jiefan, who was on point, throws her arms out to keep everyone back: there’s people in the room!

A rich warm purr of a masculine voice says “Come, come, make yourselves at home – this is your suite after all.” It’s the warm chuckle that’s genuinely terrifying.

Seated in an armchair, holding a brandy snifter, is a catman in a tremendously elegant black suit, holding a brandy snifter. Next to him is a giant slab of a cat, easily two meters tall and a meter wide, hands clasped in front of him, much cheaper black suit straining to contain his immense arms.

“I took the liberty of buying a bottle; the 65 year old has quite a lovely nose. Please, share a glass with me.

“Call me Vanguard Qiang, this is my colleague Qing Long.” The cat-mountain chuffs.

“After the hospitality of the Shenzhou Police Department, the least the Triad could do is buy drinks for our esteemed guests.”

Rina asks which one of them banged Shiori: from scent, she can tell it was Qiang, who tries to cover his reaction.

Qiang also wants to know why they’re in town and why they had dinner with the PD anti-Triad task force. He and Lane spar politely, but Lane’s having none of it. The cops just wanted to apologize for the false arrest: they thought Rina was Triad.

“I’m nothing like you!” - Rina.

“They did not discuss their prejudice with us, they simply wanted to apologize for mistakenly taking us in. That was so kind!”

“It was a legitimate misunderstanding – I had a dodgy uncle who was in a Communist organization at one time.” – Rook “And we had nothing to do with those dead bodies on the sea platform!”

Lane: “I’m sure this gentleman here has been blamed before for things that were not his fault either, and you know how bad that can feel.”

“I can guarantee you we would never intervene in ‘legitimate businesses.’”

“Thank you for this lovely gift – if you could just leave it we’re all very tired. “ And Rina does appear to be falling asleep.

Lane politely threatens him and escorts him out. Qing Long turns in the doorway and glares at each of them in turn. Rina yawns. Lane stares him down and he scoots.

Lane: “When people believe we were responsible for stealing ships and leaving dead bodies, you’d think they should be more courteous to us!”

Rook: “Yeah, what if we really were mass murderers?! And did you see how big his ears were? I bet they hear a lot of things.”

Lane asks Rina to do a sweep of the room to make sure nobody else is listening in. She appears to wake up. Those people were boring and she was letting them know that by sleeping. It was a cat power move.

She finds a bug in the sofa cushions and one under the bottle: she gets down close and says terrible things about their mother in Cat. “And make sure you translate that for the big stupid human you’re in.” And sends feedback through the line before deactivating everything.

Lane calls Madison to say goodnight. Madison’s delighted to hear from her after a long day of working on the torpedo turret project. Lane’s getting quite serious about her, but doesn’t want Madison to know that yet. Everybody thinks Lane’s being very subtle 😊

The next morning they head directly to the University. Delucca’s concerned about Dr. Hu’s mood, and coaches Lane a bit.

Lane reassures him that Madison will share all data. And she tells him Rina says the fish at the restaurant was delightful.

Rook: “She did leave me a Save The Kraken pamphlet – that was a little alarming. Maybe the Kraken are like us, misunderstood.” - Rook. She wonders if they’re edible. Rina wants to try. But Rook says the pamphlet says they’re highly intelligent – what if they just want to be our friends, we don’t want to eat friends!”

Rina: “But what if they’re delicious?”

Hu agrees to the deal, and Lane has the TreeHouse sub crew head on up to meet them at the docks.

They’re shown around the sub in excruciating detail by Deng Zilong, who was one of the naval architects on the original Anglerfish-class design project. Eventually the TreeHouse crew shows up and boards.

Lane busts Dr. Delucca trying to board in a TreeHouse uniform. “I’m not sure that was really part of our plans – I’d really hate to take you from anything here. While we’re planning a very safe research trip, there’s always some degree of risk, and I’d hate to take on even that small, minor risk. And as delightful as you are, I don’t know that we can take you with us. How about next trip, we’ll get you and Madison together and go have some fun!” As they prepare to depart, Rook tells Lane they should have brought Delucca. On consideration, Lane agrees with Rook’s point that Delucca’s been on the sub before and could be valuable. Lane admits she acted in haste. Rook gets it, but has been having second thoughts. Normally you don’t bring people along you want to do murder in front of, but maybe this time! Rook says that they could do actual research, and that’d help legitimacy with the university.

Lane calls Delucca to extend a last-minute invitation – but she’ll need an NDA. Delucca says she knew there was something else going on, some biz about the geothermal tap. She doesn’t care, and is happy to sign, as long as she can get some sea bottom research in. Lane says there’s a plane waiting.

Once Delucca is aboard, they depart. The sub descends, deeper and deeper, the hull creaking loudly as the pressure increases, but the gauges show everything is fine. Navigating to the tap is easy: they know right where it is.

They come in range, and it’s an easy call to proceed. They fire their first two torpedoes, a clean and damaging hit on the facility.

A dozen figures boil out from the facility, swimming towards you, carrying some sort of pike. Over everyone's Agents and the sub viewscreen is a kraken/human hybrid: “Patriarch Armitage foresaw your coming. We will not permit you to kill us all!”