L17-1 Break-In

System Intruder Alert ...July 13, 02:32:53...

...Number of servers routed, 5...

...Firewalls breached 3/5... ... Recovering log→ Tracking OK....

...Intruder identified

Professor Nikaido let out a quiet sigh as he ran the security check. The hacking defense system, developed by Wammy's House's Q and given to him by his personal friend Watari, had identified the perpetrator who had cleverly routed through several servers all over the world on its way into the lab's system.

"Accessed from inside the lab..."

Unwilling to accept the truth, Nikaido silently ran the security check again and again. He stared at the same result displayed on the monitor and sighed deeply.

It was just past eleven p.m. and there was no one else in the lab. Nikaido's eyes wandered in search of something. Just as I'm unable to see a virus without a microscope, it seems I haven't been able to see people for who they are. A disgusted smile escaped his lips. He stared at the teacup in his hand but did not drink the tea that Kujo had made for him, which was now cold.

Suddenly an alarm went off. The surveillance monitor showed an image of a group of men, masked and armed with rifles, attempt- ing to break into the lab. Switching to a different camera, Nikaido found the guard in the security room slumped over unconscious. He appeared to have been drugged.

Quietly Nikaido closed his eyes.

For as long as he'd been handling the virus, which had the poten tial to become a more powerful weapon than even nuclear warheads, he had been preparing for exactly this situation. He turned to the computer and began to type furiously. After sending one email, he deleted all his files using the emergency system created by Q.

The intruders walked calmly into the lab only a second later.

"Professor Nikaido, you must be very busy, but we'd like a moment of your time." The masked man appearing to be the leader of the group announced their arrival in a polite manner belied by his threatening appearance.

"I don't believe you have an appointment." Nikaido said.

"We won't take too much of your time. We'll be on our way as soon as we accomplish what we came here for."

"And what might that be?"

The leader sat down on the sofa, and the man standing next to him answered in his stead. "We shouldn't have to tell you, now should we?" He held up his rifle.

"If I value my life... Is that it? I deal with deadly viruses every day, I'm not afraid to die."

A woman in a miniskirt came forward. "Aww, that's what I thought you'd say. Which is why we invited a special guest!" she said, snapping her fingers excitedly in a way that seemed entirely inappropriate for the situation.

"No!" Nikaido's face grew pale as he stood up.

"No! Let go...let me go!" Maki struggled to break free as she was brought before the man relaxing on the sofa.

"She must have come to check on why you're so late coming home. Saved us the trouble!"

"I'd rather not do anything extreme, so I wish you'd quietly do as we ask. As you can see," the group's leader shrugged, glancing behind him, "they're rather hot-tempered."

The younger members standing behind him snickered.

Nikaido glared at the man on the sofa. "So you're here for the virus. I can only imagine the foolish scheme you'd hatch if I were to hand over the virus to the likes of someone who'd resort to this to get what they wanted."

"Foolish, you say?" the man repeated, standing up slowly. With that ever-present smile peeking out from behind the mask, he grabbed Nikaido by the collar and kneed him in the pit of the stomach.

Nikaido staggered hack coughing and fell into a chair.

"Not nearly as foolish as you, who would create a weapon such as the virus, knowing that the Japanese government and the US. would have their way with it."

"You're wrong! My father wouldn't make a weapon. Liar! Let me go!" Maki, whose arms were being held behind her, tried to writhe free.

"Oh, shut your yap, will you? I hate the sound of kids' voices. Now I'm getting annoyed." The young woman began to fiddle with the stiletto knife hanging at her waist. The blade glimmered.

Nikaido bit his lip and growled, "The virus and antidote are being stored in deep-freeze containers in separate compartments. They can only be opened with my password and biometric authentication."

"Then if you'll please show us the way."

"Daddy, don't give it to them!" Maki shouted as Nikaido was marched toward the storage compartments with a rifle in his back. He choked out, "I only completed the antidote last night. I haven't reported it to anyone yet. Just how did the information get leaked?"

The leader laughed. "Well now, are you saying that a preeminent virologist such as yourself isn't able to identify the source of the virus?" They arrived at the storage compartment, and Nikaido had no choice but to hand the ampule of the virus to the group's leader. Then on to the next storage compartment. Nikaido took the ampule of the antidote in his hand and stopped.

The world will end if they use this. Nikaido hesitated and asked, "What will you use it for?"

"Not to worry. We will use it to achieve world peace," said the group's leader.

Nikaido fixed his eyes on the man and said. "The world peace you speak of is one that's only convenient to you. You're the same as that Kira, who went around killing criminals without regard for the law."

The leader in the mask appeared unruffled. "The same as Kira- for us, that would be a high compliment. Our will to create an ideal society is no less passionate than that of Kira."

Nikaido closed his eyes upon hearing the words. When he opened them again, there was a quiet determination in his eyes. Maki swal- lowed hard. "Don't lose sight of what you have to do. Until the very last moment..." muttered Nikaido to himself, as if to make certain of his own resolve. In the next instant, he smashed the ampule on the floor and threw himself at one of the men holding a rifle.

The man's fingers inadvertently pulled the trigger. The rifle crack rang throughout the room and everything stopped.

"I...I shot him," the man said, visibly upset even with his face masked. "It wasn't my fault." He looked down at Nikaido. The scien- tist had sunk to his knees; the bullet had opened up his chest.

"Y-you came at me first," the man said. He dropped the rifle with a bewildered look. Evidently he had never shot anyone before now.

Gasping for air, Nikaido choked out, "I deleted...the antidote...data... If I die...you won't be able to...produce it." Slowly, Nikaido fell forward and collapsed.

"Daddy!" Maki, who had stood helplessly by, shook off the arms holding her and made a run for it.

"Hey, stop!"

Maki slipped through the arms trying to grab her, dropped down and crawled between one man's legs. The men reached to grab her, but their long rifles got in the way, clanging against one another.She bolted out of the storage room, shutting the door behind her, and wedged the handle end of a mop against the door.

"Break it down!"

The men quickly broke down the door, but Maki was already gone.

"The stairs! She went up!"

"We put guards on all the exits. She won't get away!"

The men hit the steps and ran immediately into a stream of blind- ing fire retardant. Maki filled the narrow corridor with the foam from the top of the steps, then flung the empty canister at the nearest target.

"Argh!"

More fire extinguishers-three of them this time-took a good bounce off the edge of the stairs and slammed into legs and arms and even a masked forehead.

By the time the exhaust settled onto the slick steps, the girl was gone again.

"Check the rooms!"

"Got it."

The men were angry now and kicked open doors with what might be called glee.

"I heard something in here!"

"Open it!"

Kicking down the door, the men burst into the room without bothering to check the sign on it. Instantly they fell over backward as a monkey flew right at them.

"Dammit, now you're gonna get it!" shouted the red-faced man, who threw off his mask after being scratched up and down by the monkey.

Meanwhile, Maki took refuge inside her father's office. She saw the lab coat hanging on the wall and was reminded of the image of her father's dying moments. She could no longer stifle the sobs. Touching the coat gently, she remembered what her father had told her: Maki, if something happens to me, grab what's in the safe and run.

You have to save the world.

Replaying her father's instructions inside her head. Maki entered a number on the touchpad and opened the safe.

"Daddy... what is this?"

Inside the safe was a teddy bear.

For a moment she stared at it blankly, but the menacing footsteps drew closer and closer by the second. She nodded resolutely, stepped inside the safe, and closed the door from inside. Just as the door clacked shut, the men arrived out of breath. They looked at each other and laughed.

"Just like a child. What is she going to do locked up inside the safe?"

The leader, finally strolling in, said. "Like a mouse in a trap. We should be able to find out the access code to the safe easily enough." Then he ordered, "Get it open, Yoshizawa. Quickly."

"Yes, sir."

With a laptop and two alligator clips, the man called Yoshizawa went to work, hacking the lock and its programming simultaneously. It took only a few minutes. He pulled opened the safe door and peered inside.

"Come on out. Wait until I get my hands on you," he said with an air of bravado, though he had already taken both a fire extinguisher and a monkey to the face. Cautiously he set foot inside the safe one step at a time. However, he returned immediately with a dismayed look. "Mr. Matoba, there's a trap door."

Matoba, the leader, put a hand to his head and looked up at the ceiling dramatically. "We've been had. She must have gone into the underground corridors."

"Should we go after her?"

"Don't bother, Konishi," replied Matoba. He took off his mask and sat on the sofa. ""The professor said he destroyed all the data on the virus."

"Uh, yes..." said Konishi, who'd been checking the data on the professor's computer. With his eyes blinking timidly from behind his glasses, Konishi shook his head. "Everything's been deleted. The data can't be recovered."

Unruffled, Matoba muttered. "As long as he was aware of the possibility that the virus could be used by terrorists, he would never dispose of the research results completely. The data must be somewhere else. To whom would he entrust it?"

"Someone he trusts the most...his daughter?" offered Yoshizawa.

Matoba nodded. "He sacrificed himself to secure her escape. There's no telling who the girl might have helping her. We will have to take a more indirect approach. But the first step is to find the girl."

Though inwardly he cursed the men's failure, Matoba did not let on. He was already planning their next move.

"But Mr. Matoba, we now have the virus. Couldn't we carry out the plan with the virus alone?"

Matoba glared at Yoshizawa. "Listen to yourself! If we do that, you and the other people who are indispensable to the new world are liable to become victims. I won't jeopardize the people who support our plan!"

"Mr. Matoba-"

"Yoshizawa, you must not degrade what we are trying to accomplish to an act of terrorism. will not allow anyone to disgrace this plan that is to be carried out for a noble cause."

Since Matoba was rarely one to raise his voice, his concern for the members had the effect of boosting morale. To Matoba, the members of the organization were nothing more than pawns to be used. For these pawns to perform effectively, however, they could not yet know their real purpose.

"Oh, Mr. Matoba! What do you want me to do with the body? By morning, the other researchers will be back." Hatsune listlessly took off her mask. Tracing the blade of her stiletto knife with her finger, she seemed dissatisfied to have done so little.

"Fortunately, this is a level four experimental facility," Matoba said matter-of-factly, sitting in Nikaido's chair. "No one will discover the body if we incinerate it along with the infected lab animals. We'll make it look like Professor Nikaido went on a little trip."