With her work done for the day – for what little Martin had actually given her – Maria exited the DanariTek building to the busy city streets. Pedestrians, people in hovercars, on hover-bikes, were moving in different directions, some returning to their homes after work, others just casually going somewhere. Maria was still deciding where she was going herself. Home would be the easy choice – the normal choice – but the ab-normality of the last eight hours or so made her feel like she should make an exception today. But also, home was comfort-ing. And comfort was something Maria definitely craved right now. Decisions, decisions…

Someone bumped into her as they walked by, making Maria realize she was standing right in the middle of the side-walk. Instinctively, she took a few steps back. She thought she heard a disapproving grunt escape the figure as she did.

Then she finally made her decision.

She dug out her phone and started tapping on it, looking for a very specific name on her contact list. When she found it, she tapped the Call button and pressed the palm-sized monolith against her ear. First beep. Second beep. Third beep. Now was roughly the time Yuriko should pick up.

And she did. Her voice echoed with a mix of cheer and concern on the other end of the line. “Ahoy,” Yuriko hollered.

“Hi,” Maria replied affectionately. Then she let Yuriko in on her plan for the evening: “Up for a drink? Feel like I could use one myself. And your company.”

“Bad day at work?”

“Boring if anything. But there is something I want to talk over. Something best suited for discussing offline.”

“Sure, I’ll oblige. Just name the time and place.”

“Dan’s Dojo.” The dingiest, sleaziest, most depressingly decorated bar in all of Neo-Tokyo, with equally attractive average clientele – a joint perfectly befitting of Maria’s current mental state. “Thirty minutes.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

“I’d expect nothing less from you.” Yuriko had always been a chronic early arriver. “See you there.” And with that, Maria hung up and set foot towards Dan’s Dojo, being extra conscious about the way she moved. Look normal, she told herself. Can’t look suspicious. Just in case a police hovercar drives by.

Twenty-nine minutes later, Maria stepped through the unusually manually operable door into Dan’s Dojo and scanned its interior for Yuriko. She found her sitting at a circular table in the back corner. The two exchanged a wave upon seeing each other, then Maria pointed towards the counter, so as to telepathically tell Yuriko that she needed to order a drink before joining her. Yuriko nodded, as if saying “Take your time”.

Maria walked up to the counter and leaned over it, cred-chip already in hand, hollering to the bartender: “Pint of your cheapest beer, please.” The bartender obliged her wordlessly and efficiently, pouring her the drink, punching its price into the payment processor and hovering it over her credchip. And Maria was a measly one hundred credits poorer after the trans-action.

Beer in hand, she walked over to Yuriko, who was al-ready halfway down her own drink, and sat down opposite her.

“So, what’d you wanna talk about?” Yuriko inquired as Maria took her seat.

“Murder investigation stuff,” Maria replied honestly. She could practically feel the groan that escaped Yuriko taking physical form and becoming an angel on her shoulder.

“I thought I told you not to go down the revenge path,” Yuriko muttered, sounding like a disappointed mother.

“And I said I wasn’t. Don’t worry. I’m just trying to find out who murdered my dad.”

A sharp nose exhale came out of Yuriko, as if she wasn’t fully convinced. “If you say so.” She paused to ponder what to ask next, eventually deciding upon: “Don’t suppose you’ve made any tangible progress?”

“Actually yes, even if I only started today. Workday was uneventful, so I had a lot of time to peruse the Net. Harashima has flooded the feeds with his own death, though, unsur-prisingly. But I dove into the Dark Net and—”

“The Dark Net?! During office hours?” Yuriko’s sudden loudness was sure to attract unwanted attention – thankfully the Dojo was relatively empty at this hour. “Goddammit, Maria, what happened to your sense of responsibility?”

Not a totally unwarranted question, Maria had to admit. She was usually more responsible than to peruse the Dark Net during office hours. Usually. But circumstance had forced her hand. “I had to look in there, okay? The good side had nothing on Dad’s death.” Dramatic pause, coupled with a conspiratorial smirk. “And you won’t believe what I came across.”

“Hit me.”

Maria pulled out her phone and performed a series of finger motions, setting it down in front of Yuriko and letting her look at what she’d found for a moment.

When Yuriko turned her gaze back to Maria, her ex-pression was riddled with confusion. “But what does this have to do with your dad’s murder?”

Maria leaned in secretively. “That cabin is the prison where he was held. Location’s supposed to be unknown except to law enforcement. But I managed to look up where it is. A deserted part of the country, an hour’s drive out of Central NT.”

“Wow,” sang an impressed Yuriko. “How’d you find all that info?”

“Didn’t have to look too hard, surprisingly. It’s as if someone in the police department had leaked it.”

In that same moment, Maria realized she had yet to take the first sip of her beer. She grabbed the glass and started gulping the drink down, immediately emptying a quarter of it.

“Surely the police would’ve already caught on and wiped the info, though?” Yuriko theorized.

“Maybe. But evidently, they’re not as efficient as we think they are.”

“Careful what you say about law enforcement in public,” Yuriko warned in a whisper. “If the wrong person hears you, that’s enough to get you arrested.”

“You’re right. My bad.”

“Anyway, that’s…” The last phoneme as Yuriko spoke turned into a long, whistle-like sigh. “Certainly something.” Then she turned a concerned gaze to Maria. “And that’s where you’re gonna start investigating?”

Maria produced a confirmatory nod. “If I want any clues about who killed Dad, I figure it’s the best place to start.”

Yuriko nodded back. “Anyone at work know about any of this?”

“No. And it’s honestly for the best that they don’t.”

“Can’t disagree there,” Yuriko muttered. A silent vow to keep Maria safe in her own way. She clasped a hand over Maria’s and continued, concern coloring her tone: “Just be careful out there, okay? I don’t know how I’d take the sight of you coming home in a body bag.” But Maria did. And sadly, she could offer no assurances. No promises she’d be fine.

Feeling a chill run down her spine, Maria leaned over the table and wrapped an arm around Yuriko, uncertain of what the future held but wanting to tell her best friend she’d be okay without actually knowing if she would. Yuriko responded to the gesture with equal affection, oblivious to the fact that it also signified a final farewell in Maria’s mind. Just in case.

The two remained entangled for minutes, sitting back down and finishing their beers in silence once they felt the moment had lasted long enough.

At some point, probably an hour later, Yuriko got up in preparation to leave and informed Maria: “Should be going home. Prepare mentally for tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Thinking I’ll be going soon as well.”

“Wanna enjoy the atmosphere a little longer?”

Maria nodded. “And maybe a second beer.”

“I don’t blame you,” Yuriko commented as she started walking towards the bar’s front door. “See ya.”

“Bye,” Maria replied with a sense of finality she hoped Yuriko wouldn’t catch.

She thought the alcohol would calm her nerves, but it felt like it’d done the opposite. Maria felt more anxious now than she had an hour ago. But she was surprised to still be com-posed enough to not shake like a tree during an earthquake. It wasn’t that she particularly feared death, she was just unsure of the level of danger she was putting herself in. Perusing the Dark Net during office hours had put enough on the line if her co-workers – or worse yet, Martin – found out about it.

Her moment of anxiety was interrupted by a voice from behind. “Friendly advice,” it sounded.

She threw her gaze backward, slightly startled.

An oddly familiar face greeted her. Though she’d only seen the face once, very briefly. But its features were defined enough to have left an impression. If only Maria could place where she’d seen it.

“Don’t go anywhere near that cabin,” the man behind her continued. “You’ll get yourself killed if you do. Don’t let your friend’s fears come true.”

Then he stood up and began walking towards the door, hands in the pockets of his trenchcoat, leaving Maria to struggle with the implications of his warning.

And when he had left the bar, only then did Maria remember where she’d seen him. And when.

It was one of the police officers who had been at Danari-Tek that morning.