There Are Many Tokyos In Flower

Chapter 3: A Reunion For One

Martin had never realized how world-weary he felt — how tired he was of living numb and jaded — until he heard Doctor Rin Porter ask him that question.

Because he knew the answer was 'no'. Just at a glance, he had a dozen different reasons to be certain that if he had met her before, he would have remembered. From her wild hair to midnight black artificial eye, past the dearth of people with PhDs in his life, to the fact she was five foot two at the most and didn't bother with heels to try and compensate for it, Martin knew if he had met Rin before today, he would have remembered.

Martin also knew, just as profoundly, that he wished he did know her.

"I wish I knew how you know me," Martin said, and meant it. He steppe towards her with his hand extended. "Martin Rawley, security consultant."

"I know. Believe it or not, we've met before," Rin said.

Her handshake was firm, as firm as he was used to from his coworkers back in Peace of Mind. It spoke of strength and confidence without showing off. And from her grip. Martin could feel the callouses on her fingertips — which spoke to either an extraordinary amount of typing, or holding hot things by the ends of her fingers.

"Impossible," Martin asserted. "There's no way I wouldn't remember you."

"No, you wouldn't remember," Rin disagreed, but that warm smile of hers slipped back on her face. And once again, her expression held all the warmth of the sun and the wonder of Neo Tokyo. "It hasn't happened yet."

Martin's collar suddenly felt stiflingly warm, and he tugged on it before rubbing the back of his head, nearly knocking BIRD off his shoulder.

"Rin, you're not confusing him with your theories on how time works, are you?" the captain asked.

Rin's smile vanished as her head turned, but there was a hungry, nearly manic look in her eyes. "Do you have it?" she asked.

"Safer than an encrypted hard drive in an air-gapped computer," Candice replied, and she pointed to the stairs. "It's in the vault room, two flights up."

Candice lead the way, with Rin following close behind. Bemused and not at all inclined to focus, Martin followed a fair ways back. As they started up the stairs, BIRD climbed close to Martin's ear and whispered, "I know you missed it, because your mouth hasn't closed since the girl first started talking to you, but did you catch the part where she said you haven't met her yet? And said it like it already happened?"

"Odd turn of phrase? They probably play fast and loose with the English language in a Cyberpunk commune," Martin said with a shrug.

"Right. Because a temporal continuity researcher deliberately mixing up past and future tense is definitely just using a figure-of-speech," BIRD said, covering its head with a metallic wing. Martin blinked, and very nearly grabbed the little computer when he realized it was facepalming. "That frightens me more than seeing a bomb technician sprinting. Do you even know what Doctor Porter's here to pick up?"

"No. I didn't need to know, and didn't ask. Like a professional security consultant," Martin said.

"Like someone who wants plausible deniability when things go sideways and the authorities are left trying to clean up their mess," BIRD sniped scathingly. "That's always the trouble with you mercenary types, you're always trying to deny that you have agency, even when you're the one holding the gun."

"Do your job. Get paid. It's the client who decides what goes down," Martin replied with a shrug.

"Pretty sure the only thing separating you from a nazi at the Nuremberg trials is no one's stitched a swastika on your shoulder," BIRD said. "Hope you have a change of heart, the day you're holding enough power to realize you've had it for years."