Chapter Fifty-Six - Fancy Food

Chapter Fifty-Six - Fancy Food I pulled out the seat across from Miss Ojou, legs scraping on the floor, then sat down. "Good evening," I said. Nice, simple start. "Hello," she replied. "One moment. My... guards will insist that you disarm." I blinked, then shrugged before standing up again and removing my belt and then my revolver. The C-ranker came over, scoffed at me, then took my gear away. "The mask?" he asked. I glanced from him to Miss Ojou. She didn't say no. "Fine," I replied. He could take that too. Should have worn lipstick, then. "Feel safe enough?" I asked. "Yes. Thank you. I appreciate you going along with this." "Didn't have too much of a choice," I replied before I crossed my arms. "I have some questions." "Certainly," she replied. "But before that, are you hungry?" I blinked, then looked down. There was a menu on the table, and a small basket with fresh bread which did smell real nice. It was good bread too, the kind with like, little nut baked into the top. Not some store-bought stuff. I picked up the menu and glanced it over. There was... a lot of French here, but not common-parlance French. Fancy food French. A waiter arrived a moment later, let past by the guards. He bowed to us, and gestured. Miss Ojou indicated that I could go first. "My treat, of course." Yeah, no shit. "I'll have, ah, a... Galapagos tortoise steak." There was a small note that said that these were found in a C-rank portal and were extremely high in magical potency... and went well paired with a harsher red wine. Miss Ojou cleared her throat. "The waiter is deaf, Deadline. They do speak sign, if you're capable of such," she said. She pointed at her own menu, and the waiter nodded, then glanced at me. I sheepishly did the same. Then the waiter turned, removed two small flags from within his vest, and flicked through a series of gestures. Semaphore? Ah... that was a cute gimmick. The restaurant name made more sense. "And to drink?" Miss Ojou asked. I squinted at her. Was she fucking with me? It didn't seem like it, but damn, this whole meeting felt awkward. I pointed at some wine on the menu. The cost was in the four figures. She could afford it, right? Besides, it was supposed to pair well. "Alright. Care to explain how you sent that letter?" "Is that really what you care about most?" Miss Ojou asked. I frowned. "Right now? Yeah." She shrugged, leaning back into her seat. "It's a service sold by one of the members of Midnight Tea Garden. It was expensive, but discreet." Midnight Tea Garden? That was one of the more famous guilds in the city. Four members only. Well, no, four rankers only. Probably a lot of staff. Two members were A-rankers, two more B. In the grand calculus of 'which guild can kick the other's ass' they were in the top five in Fortress ENE, muscling out some hundred-plus member guilds because those rarely had more than a single B-ranker. Luna Corp, a small but still respectable corporation, had three C-rankers. The difference between C and B was... a lot. Between B and A a bit more. "Expensive," I agreed. "Thanks. I was dying to know. So. Is this just a thank-you party over nice steaks and wine?" Miss Ojou scowled slightly. "Are you not pleased, then?" "Sure," I said. "The grub will taste great, I bet." She stared at me, then glanced at her guards. "Do you mind stepping back a little?" she asked. "Ma'am," one of them said. "Clive," she replied. It was one word, but he paused, nodded, then backed off. The C-ranker followed him, still holding onto my gear, I noted. Ojou turned her attention back towards me. "I sense that you have questions." "Yeah," I replied. "Why all of this? And spare me the pleasantries. If you wanted to party, this would be a party. Unless this is your idea of a good time?" She shook her head. "I... I admired you quite a bit, you know. In that portal. Your certainty, your movement, the economy of your actions. I replayed it in my mind several times already. Now I'm less certain that it wasn't a fluke. Still. I thought it possible that you'd be willing to help me once more." "Help you?" I asked, brushing past the compliments. "Yes. Of course, if you're wanting to speak about payment... I have set aside twenty-thousand, ready to transfer to any account at your discretion. Or I could arrange a payment in cash as well? You seem to prize your privacy. Which was a misstep on my part. Bringing you here will raise questions." "It's fine," I replied. Not like I planned on leaving any signs that I was here. Not in the final version of this. Twenty-thousand though... shit, that was good money. Forget those seven-fifty gigs, that was enough to buy a couple of low-to-mid grade pieces of cyberware. A bike, maybe. Used, but good. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. "Okay. Payment's nice. What's the rest of the story, then?" Ojou stared at me. "I don't know if this is wise any longer," she said. "Give me a chance?" I asked. I didn't like asking it, though. It sounded too... plead-y. And I think that didn't work with miss bossy-boss here. "Fine, I suppose," she said, and I knew I'd lost her a little. "The kidnapping wasn't a coincidence... actually, no, tell me what you think of it? How did you learn about it? What do you know?" "Less than you might think," I said. "You expect me to believe that?" "Not all of us are corpo princesses who wouldn't lift a finger to help someone in need," I said. She balked, then glared. "I suppose that's plausible. But it doesn't explain how efficient or effective you were." "Built different," I said. She scoffed, clearly not finding me funny. Too bad, I didn't find her very funny either. "I'll pay you," she replied. "Okay," I said. "I can tell you what I know, but it really isn't much. Gang showed up and nabbed you, did it clean, had a place laid out for it and something of a plan. Probably could have held you for a while too. You'd be stuck in that cage for a week, at least." She didn't like that, not one bit. "But honest? That's all I know." Ojou's jaw clenched, but she sighed and glanced away as our meals arrived. Damn, that was fast... She had a very fancy salad, the greens were not always green, and I didn't recognize the nuts on there. All portal foods? My steak looked like a steak, a bit thick, with nice grill marks. Then I smelled it and felt saliva pooling in my mouth. I grabbed a knife and cut a slice off the side. It had been marinated a bit in some sort of sauce, the inside was just a little pink, but warm and juicy. And then I took a bite and moaned. "Holy fuck," I said. "Yes, the chef here is famously good." Damn, this was good-good. Top three meals in my life. I took another bite. Top two. The fry-like... non-potato things tasted like magic and saturated fats and the love of a mother looking at her newborn. "Damn," I said. I was repeating this loop a couple of times to try the rest of the menu, screw how long it took. Plus, there was some stuff I wanted to know about Ojou, different angles to try. "I'm glad you're enjoying the party," she said. "Alright, food won me over a little," I admitted. "Take a girl out to date somewhere like this a few times and you'll be sticking in her memories." Ojou blushed rather prettily and looked away. "Don't speak nonsense. Now, onto business?" "Sure?" "I want, no, I need to know who arranged to have me kidnapped." "You have some suspects?" I asked. "Obviously. Redline stock actually climbed this week, and none of our adversaries made a move. I suspect it's internal." "Someone in the company?" I asked. Had Redline been involved in the breach at all? I didn't think so, but it was also one of those big conglomerate corps with a thousand branches. "Someone in the family," she said. "Aren't you the heiress?" I asked. She shook her head. "One of many. My father, Jonathan Redline, is the owner, though he is due to retire soon. The company will be handed out piecemeal to his children. Myself included." "Ah. And if you croak, your share goes to someone else? Bits split off and shared?" "The 'bits' are entire companies," she replied. "And by 'soon' I mean that my father intends to retire sometime in the next decade." "Alright," I said. "So, another Ojou?" "No. I have one sister and she's younger than I, and is unlikely to be the culprit." "You sure?" "She's in high school. Which doesn't preclude her planning a successful kidnapping, but it does make it somewhat unlikely. Also, she isn't the sort. I have two elder brothers, John Bocchan and Albert Bocchan." "Bocchan?" I asked. "My father is eccentric," was her answer. It really didn't explain much, but whatever. Dude had to be hella rich and could get away with whatever. I leaned back. My steak was gone. How? Who stole it? Was it me? Fuck me. That was my steak. I refocused on the moment, however, because I could act sane at times. "So, you want your brothers dead?" "What? No! I want to discover the culprit, and you seemed reasonably competent. Now I'm not so certain." That... okay, setting aside her attitude, I could see where she was coming from. The kidnaping was probably not random. So someone had to arrange it ahead of time. But why? She'd worked backwards from one possible and very plausible why, and now had some ideas as to the 'who' which... yeah, that tracked. "Okay. Say I decide to help, what do you need, exactly? And can I order another of these to go?" ***