Sign of the Dragon (Tatsu Yamada Book 1) by Niall Teasdale (e reader TXT) 📕

‘A guy came to me claiming he had evidence that Rasputin is invading.’

‘Drunk or junky?’

‘You’ve got a really cynical attitude, you know that, Yamada?’

‘I tend to find my cynicism isn’t sufficient.’

‘Well… guy stank of stale beer, but he had video. Transferring it now. You’ve seen the kind of bot Rasputin deploys. I figure you can verify.’

Tatsu began streaming the short clip of video before it was finished moving over the internet. It showed a dark alley and the geotag data indicated that this was the general area of the mass murder in the apartment block on Friday. It was grainy, clearly taken using human eyes and recorded on an implant, but it showed three things which were clearly robots and a fourth which might have been a human in combat armour or a gynoid.

‘It’s not Rasputin,’ Tatsu said immediately.

‘How can you tell after two seconds?’ Burrell asked.

‘Rasputin despises humans. He doesn’t build anything on a humanoid skeleton.’

‘Not even things designed to infiltrate–’

‘He doesn’t do infiltration. He does subjugation and death.’ Tatsu watched the floating robots working with the humanoid. Flying on four fans. Maybe an indication of a weapon mounted to fire through the front. They were maybe half a metre long, a bit less in their width. ‘The flyers aren’t his style either. When he builds something that flies, it’s more like a helicopter gunship or a jet fighter. For fighting in an urban environment, he prefers things built on six or eight legs with a lot of weapons mounted.’

‘Okay,’ Burrell said, ‘but this is right beside that mass shooting from Friday, right? This is probably your killer. Right?’

‘I can neither confirm nor deny. Video quality is too low, and the humanoid is either a gynoid or wearing a helmet. No visible features.’

‘But there is a sword visible. That humanoid has a sword, Yamada.’

‘Certainly what looks like a sword. A katana, probably. It makes this possibly our killer. A woman. We can maybe get a height and a weight range…’ The video ended as the humanoid figure seemed to vanish, melding into the shadows. ‘Possibly adaptive camouflage. Pretty advanced armour. I can’t say this is the killer, Dex, but if you want to run with the story, do it. I can definitely say that Rasputin isn’t involved. No invasion scenario here.’

‘You really want me to run with this?’

Tatsu shrugged. ‘It’s not a lot. It might make her nervous. Nervous people make mistakes. She thinks she’s got everything covered, and here she is missing a tramp getting video of her. She made a mistake. If she knows she made a mistake, she might make more.’

‘Or she might get more careful.’

‘Possibly, but if she’s more cautious, she may delay her next hit. If you want to do it, do it. Just don’t quote me. HQ will probably have a fit if they know I’ve been talking to you.’

‘I know the drill. All my sources are secret.’

Tatsu cut the connection and lay down on her bed. So, they were dealing with a woman. A woman hellbent on revenge against the Funabashi gang. She turned onto her side and closed her eyes. Unfortunately, that did not really narrow the suspect pool down a great deal.

31st August.

‘I know, but I have a job to do,’ Tatsu said.

‘Your job is getting in the way of my sex life,’ Sachiko replied over the link. She had called to ask if Tatsu wanted to meet after she got off work, but Tatsu was already in position on a rooftop near to Vasilev’s apartment block.

‘It gets in the way of mine too.’

‘Mine is more important. I’m younger and need my orgasms more.’ The image Tatsu could see was grinning.

‘Call Yamauchi. I’m sure she’d supply all the orgasms you could want.’

‘Not like you can.’ Sachiko sighed. ‘I suppose I’ll survive until you’ve finished watching that Russian to see if he’s next.’

‘Glad to hear it. Maybe I’ll take you out on a real date once this is over. Like, something a bit better than a burger.’

Sachiko giggled. ‘You see me in some posh restaurant?’

‘Sure. Why not. You must have something that isn’t largely made of fishnet you can wear.’

‘No, but I can make something. Later.’

As the call window vanished, Tatsu pulled another bank of windows back to the front of her sensorium. These showed various views of Vasilev’s building, inside and out, from security cameras. The coverage was far from perfect. On the other hand, it gave her a better view of things than her own eyes provided. Now all she had to do was wait for a murderess to make a move. Hopefully, that would not take too long.

2nd September.

Just because Tatsu was mounting a vigil at night, it did not mean that there was no business during the day. The building she was currently going over was in Inagekaigan. An old factory had been taken over by the Mihama Yankees to split cocaine shipments into smaller units for sale, and one of the Chinese street gangs had decided to shut it down. It had not gone especially well for either side.

‘We’ve got eight bodies,’ Senior Officer Okamoto said. ‘We took three more to the hospital. One of those is probably not going to make it. Well, maybe, but he’s going to need a new leg.’ She was speaking through a filter mask; the air was grey with dust, and probably not the kind of dust you wanted to breathe.

Everything, including the corpse Tatsu was currently looking at, was covered in fine powder. It was like someone had been over the entire area with a sieve, dusting it with icing sugar. The only areas which were relatively clear of it were the pools of blood. The entire place had become a monochrome wonderland of red and white.

‘What a