Interesting fact of the day: Defenestration increased by more than five hundred percent after the emergence of samurai. It increased by an additional 500 percent in Germany alone, after 2051.

  Fact of the day, December 3, 2062

  ---

  “They arrested Dad? Why?” I finally managed to choke out after several seconds.

  “Apparently there was a ‘sting operation’, and your father was caught installing foreign black market cybernetics into both his bodyguards and girlfriends,” my mother explained before narrowing her eyes and practically spitting out the next part. “Personality adjustment and puppet implants. Fucking slave implants.”

  She took a deep draw from her champagne glass before slumping into her chair. “I spent so much of my life dealing with that asshole. After everything he’s done, I can’t believe he’s going down for something like this.”

  I slowly walked over to my mother’s side and gently took the glass away from her. As soon as I did, she grabbed my hand and pulled it close to her chest. “You know, your father didn’t seem that bad when I first met him. Even though we had an arranged marriage, he didn’t seem that bad the first couple years. That was before I opened my eyes and realized what was happening around me.”

  “I know, Mom, I know,” I whispered.

  “I can’t believe this,” she yelled, shooting to her feet. “Just when I’d earned the trust of the government and convinced them to investigate, this happens!”

  Wobbling on her feet, muttering, she suddenly fell to the side. Skyler and I simultaneously shot forward to catch her. I managed to get under her, while Skyler grabbed her arm, arresting her fall. As we lowered her back onto the chair, her eyes slowly closed.

  “Fukin asshole,” she muttered one last time before drifting off to sleep.

  Grabbing the bottle from its place next to the chair, I quietly crossed the room and placed it down on the kitchen counter, along with the glass. She hadn’t even finished a single glass before passing out, that’s how much of a lightweight my mother was.

  With a sigh, I turned back to the entrance where Agnes was still standing. “Can you maybe explain what she was ranting about?” I whispered as we stepped back into the hallway. “Not the arrest part; I think I got that, but the last part? She managed to get them to investigate what? And how come we didn’t know about this?”

  Agnes bit her lip for a moment, slipping further down the hallway to avoid disturbing my mother. “You both know your mother has been trying to get the Cascadian government to investigate your father for years. To look into his ties to organized crime and everything else, but they refused because Tanaka Industries was such a large supplier of government hardware? Well, last week she used her samurai contacts to help her investigate one particular incident…”

  I flinched slightly before looking over at the older woman. I could only think of one incident which my mother would want to investigate while keeping me in the dark. “My grandfather’s shooting?”

  “She’s still convinced your father was behind it, to prevent you from taking over the company instead of him,” Agnes confirmed softly.

  “I understand that she wanted to protect Reina, but you two still should have told us. She’s the head of investigations, and I’m the head of legal for fuck’s sake,” Skyler huffed. “Is this why I wasn’t consulted on the ‘Safe Arbour’ contract?”

  Agnes nodded slightly.

  “We’ll discuss this more later, after my mother wakes up and works off the hangover,” I told her, before letting out a sigh. “Skyler and I still have work to do this afternoon, but we’ll stop by sometime in the next couple days to talk about this. In the meantime, you should ask Aunty Yun to round up some of the cleaning staff to help get my mother upstairs to bed.”

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  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for keeping this from you, but those were your mother’s orders.”

  “I know, we’ll talk later,” I replied quietly before Skyler and I turned towards the elevator.

  Skyler and I waited for the lift in silence, only choosing to talk once we were inside and the doors had closed. “You think he was arrested based upon the information you provided about the clinic inside the sales office?” Skyler asked quietly.

  “Probably. I did ask them to keep it low-key, to try and avoid ruining my grandfather’s good name. Arresting him for buying that sort of stuff, instead of selling it, seems like a pretty clever way of holding him responsible. It places all the blame directly on him.”

  There was a moment of silence. “Do you want to talk about the other thing Agnes told us?”

  “That my mother asked the government and samurai to investigate my grandfather’s death? It hurts that she didn’t confide in me, but doing it was the right choice. My father is triple A trash, and I wouldn’t put it past him to arrange something like that. I even considered the possibility myself once or twice. I just never bothered investigating,” I said before taking a deep breath. “I don’t know what would be better, finding out he didn’t order it or finding out that he did.”

  Skyler gently rubbed my back until the lift arrived back at our floor. When the door opened, I sniffed slightly, stood up straight, and stepped back into our apartment. “Come on, we still need to get set up,” I told Skyler as confidently as I could.

  She smiled slightly, “Right behind you.”

  The cats were still asleep, so we slipped back to the bedroom. I waited until the door was closed before speaking up. “Alright, Artymis and Athyna, time to get set up for our aquatic adventure,” I said quietly. “I don’t particularly feel like spending the next hour going through all our available aquatic options, so can we just start with the best options and go from there?”

  {Arty: Of course. Quick and easy. First of all, you’ll both require aquatic survival gear.}

  “You mean diving gear, right?” Skyler asked.

  {Athy: That’s one part of it. We do recommend you choose suits with armored layers, pressure compensators, and automated healthcare systems.}

  “Automated healthcare? Now? Why?” I asked.

  {Arty: The last thing you want to do while in the water with the antithesis is bleed excessively. Most aquatic models have shark-like receptors that allow them to detect blood kilometers away. Closing wounds is a priority.}

  “That’s fair. What do you suggest?”

  {Arty: The Class I Aquatic Armored Suits Catalog, to purchase a pair of ‘Shark Skin’ wetsuits. This model has the best protection available while leaving you unencumbered. There are heavier suits, with more armor, but they’re much harder to move with.}

  “Shark Skin sounds fine,” Skyler confirmed. “What else?”

  {Athy: Next we’ll dip into the Class I Underwater Oxygen Systems and the Class I Aquatic Movement Assistance Catalogs. From the Oxygen Systems we recommend the ‘Aqua Lung’ oxygen rebreather mask, which allows you to stay underwater for a full six hours without tanks and an automated nitrogen purge module. This will allow you to fight at different depths, or even surface, without suffering the bends. Very important when you’re in a high -speed combat. From the Movement Assistance, both of you will get the ‘Aqua Jet’ propulsion backpack, which is cheap but relatively fast and easy to use. Reina may also want to pick up the ‘deep predator’ supercavitation armguards.}

  “Do I even want to know what that is?” I asked.

  {Arty: Swinging your sword underwater will be relatively difficult. Supercavitation is a way to remove the water resistance. It’s also extremely dangerous, so please be careful and keep your limbs away from the jets.}

  “Noted. Is that it?”

  {Arty: For the general equipment. Athyna and I would like to talk to you separately for your weapons.}

  Skyler raised an eyebrow. “Keeping secrets?”

  {Athy: Just being efficient.}

  “Fine, fine,” I grumbled. “I’ll talk to Artymis in the bathroom.”

  “See you in a few minutes!” Skyler called back.

  Padding into the bathroom and closing the door behind me, I quickly looked around before finally deciding to look at myself in the mirror while we talked. “So, what do you suggest? A trident?”

  No, I was being serious before; your sword will be more than sufficient while underwater. The disintegration edge works equally well on water as it does on flesh.

  “Then what do we need to discuss?”

  Two things. First, your ranged option. Your bow won’t be effective underwater, and I wanted to provide you with an alternative. A repeating speargun would have provided the closest equivalent to the range and firepower of your bow, but since it’s functionally similar to a firearm, I assumed you’d want to avoid that. Since you normally use the bow as a support item, I instead suggest the ‘Manta’ wrist-mounted dart system.

  It’s single shot, and has a smaller range, but it can still carry a similar payload to your arrows.

  I considered it for a moment. “I guess that’s fine. What’s the second thing?”

  You’ve already unlocked the Blades In the Dark Class II Catalog, but you’ve barely used it. After all the fighting you’ve been doing the last two days, you have enough to purchase the ‘Adept Muscle Enhancement’ and ‘Sage Mental Enhancement’ before you go. They’re the upgraded versions of the biotic enhancements you already have. I would also recommend the ‘Steelskin Epidermis Enhancement’ eventually, but these two upgrades are expensive, and you tend to rely on your reflexes to avoid damage, not your armor.

  “Is this really the best time to do this? We’re about to go out into the water for the first time.”

  You and Skyler have been running from one emergency to the next ever since this incursion started, and I doubt you’ll stop anytime soon. You’ve honestly been lucky against some of the enemies you’ve run into so far, and you’ll need all the advantages you can get in the future.

  So, will you buy them?

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