would choose my ground with care, and utilize timing, to ensure that I could close with my target, and then take my target's head with one clean stroke of my sword. There would be no hail of bullets. No confrontation. No discernible noise. It would be like a formal execution. One clean stroke."
"It might be hours before the bodies were discovered."
"Precisely." Machiko nods agreement.
"And yet both assassins did succeed at two relatively difficult tasks."
"Finding us."
"Yes. And getting to us."
Finding Ryokai at home could have been luck, but finding Machiko at her parent's home, rather than at her own condo, that hints at more than mere luck. It would take planning. Perhaps even the support of a skilled decker. The Nagato Manor Residence Community where Machiko's parents live is Nagato-owned, but operated and secured by a subsidiary, and that subsidiary maintains a complete security establishment. A skilled decker with experience at sleazing information from computers could have breached the Residence Community's computer system and determined that Machiko had been cleared through the Community's main entrance earlier in the evening.
Further, neither assassin set off any alarms while making their penetrations. This definitely speaks of a decker's support. A sufficiently skilled Matrix operative might seize control of windows and doors and other facility devices, so that an assassin might penetrate a "secured" facility merely by placing one foot ahead of the other.
"Amateurs," Gongoro growls.
Machiko breathes. She turns to face Gongoro, and says, "Amateurs did not kill Mitsuharu-san and Jiksumi-san."
"What do you know of it?"
"I have seen them fight!"
"You forget. Mitsuharu has been on medication since his oral surgery. Jiksumi indulged too often in wine."
This changes nothing. "Perhaps the killers were not trained as assassins. That does not make them amateurs. No amateur would survive against Sukayo-san. And the extensive augmentations of the killer who came for me indicates a highly paid operative. A skilled combatant. To do what they have done takes discipline and organization."
Gongoro sneers. "Like teppodama ."
The idea gives Machiko pause.
Teppodama are "bullets." The term is used to refer to the occasional need for the lowest-sanked members of a clan, the kobun , to perform tasks like those of a warrior. Kobun are rarely warriors of a degree comparable to members of the Guard, but they may at times be called upon, like warriors, to demonstrate their loyalty to the clan by placing themselves at risk. They may risk injury or death, or perhaps only the chance of arrest and imprisonment. The point is that they must be prepared to prove themselves in ways that go beyond mere words, not only for the clan but for the oyabun, or the Chairman, as Honjowara -sama is properly called.
"You conceive of some similarity between these killers and loyal kobun ?" Machiko says.
"They are muscle!" Gongoro growls. "Nothing more than muscle. The killers were crude. They relied upon brute force."
"But the killers' augmentations," Ryokai says.
"This proves nothing!" Gongoro exclaims. "I could go into Manhattan's Terminal zone and be outfitted with a mountain of surplus cyberware for nothing more than the price of a Tachi Monarch." To Machiko, Gongoro says, "If this killer had been so highly paid and efficient, you would be dead."
Indeed, Machiko feels compelled to admit, if only to herself, that Gongoro does have a point. The mere presence of extensive cybernetic augmentations does not prove anything. The metal could be junk, so much non-functional dead weight. But there is another point Gongoro misses. "You were not there," Machiko says. "You do not know how close this killer came."
"I know that you live."
Machiko steps near him, to within one arm's length, and says, "I live because I sought death."
And there the discussion pauses.
Gongoro dares not sneer. Machiko makes it this way deliberately. Once her words are
"It might be hours before the bodies were discovered."
"Precisely." Machiko nods agreement.
"And yet both assassins did succeed at two relatively difficult tasks."
"Finding us."
"Yes. And getting to us."
Finding Ryokai at home could have been luck, but finding Machiko at her parent's home, rather than at her own condo, that hints at more than mere luck. It would take planning. Perhaps even the support of a skilled decker. The Nagato Manor Residence Community where Machiko's parents live is Nagato-owned, but operated and secured by a subsidiary, and that subsidiary maintains a complete security establishment. A skilled decker with experience at sleazing information from computers could have breached the Residence Community's computer system and determined that Machiko had been cleared through the Community's main entrance earlier in the evening.
Further, neither assassin set off any alarms while making their penetrations. This definitely speaks of a decker's support. A sufficiently skilled Matrix operative might seize control of windows and doors and other facility devices, so that an assassin might penetrate a "secured" facility merely by placing one foot ahead of the other.
"Amateurs," Gongoro growls.
Machiko breathes. She turns to face Gongoro, and says, "Amateurs did not kill Mitsuharu-san and Jiksumi-san."
"What do you know of it?"
"I have seen them fight!"
"You forget. Mitsuharu has been on medication since his oral surgery. Jiksumi indulged too often in wine."
This changes nothing. "Perhaps the killers were not trained as assassins. That does not make them amateurs. No amateur would survive against Sukayo-san. And the extensive augmentations of the killer who came for me indicates a highly paid operative. A skilled combatant. To do what they have done takes discipline and organization."
Gongoro sneers. "Like teppodama ."
The idea gives Machiko pause.
Teppodama are "bullets." The term is used to refer to the occasional need for the lowest-sanked members of a clan, the kobun , to perform tasks like those of a warrior. Kobun are rarely warriors of a degree comparable to members of the Guard, but they may at times be called upon, like warriors, to demonstrate their loyalty to the clan by placing themselves at risk. They may risk injury or death, or perhaps only the chance of arrest and imprisonment. The point is that they must be prepared to prove themselves in ways that go beyond mere words, not only for the clan but for the oyabun, or the Chairman, as Honjowara -sama is properly called.
"You conceive of some similarity between these killers and loyal kobun ?" Machiko says.
"They are muscle!" Gongoro growls. "Nothing more than muscle. The killers were crude. They relied upon brute force."
"But the killers' augmentations," Ryokai says.
"This proves nothing!" Gongoro exclaims. "I could go into Manhattan's Terminal zone and be outfitted with a mountain of surplus cyberware for nothing more than the price of a Tachi Monarch." To Machiko, Gongoro says, "If this killer had been so highly paid and efficient, you would be dead."
Indeed, Machiko feels compelled to admit, if only to herself, that Gongoro does have a point. The mere presence of extensive cybernetic augmentations does not prove anything. The metal could be junk, so much non-functional dead weight. But there is another point Gongoro misses. "You were not there," Machiko says. "You do not know how close this killer came."
"I know that you live."
Machiko steps near him, to within one arm's length, and says, "I live because I sought death."
And there the discussion pauses.
Gongoro dares not sneer. Machiko makes it this way deliberately. Once her words are
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