Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 Fan Fiction ❯ A Goddess Comes to Call ❯ Chapter 7

Interlude the Second

The unmarked van pulled up to the construction site shortly after the AD Police had arrived, and a four member team of white clad technicians fanned out. A young man in a business suit strode over to the head officers, his expression grave and looking very official.

"Who the hell are you?" Leon asked him with a scowl.

"Jacobson," he said, holding up his Genom corporate id while carefully concealing which division he actually came from. "There may be a unusual energy leakage involved with this situation," he explained as he tucked his id away, before asking them, "For your own safety, can my people go have a look around the site?"

"Why should be let you anywhere near..." Leon started to say, but Daley shushed him with a gesture, his expression thoughtful.

"You wouldn't have anything to do with investigating the Knight Sabers' activities here last night, would you?" Daley asked him quietly, almost feeling certain of the answer.

He wasn't disappointed when Jacobson just smiled slightly, as he softly replied, "I can neither confirm or deny that, officer." He looked at the two of them, "If you wish, your officers can follow my people around, make sure they don't disturb any evidence."

There was a pause, and Jacobson gave them a somewhat more grim smile, "Or I can call your superiors and let them know you're not being very cooperative."

Daley had to hold Leon back from lunging after Jacobson. While keeping a grip on his partner he said to Jacobson, "Make it quick."

Daley pulled the plainly angry Leon aside, saying in a fierce whisper to him, "You noticed how he covered up his division? He's probably from security and intelligence, Leon. We don't need that kind of trouble."

Daley himself came up with Jacobson in the freight elevator, giving the Genom official a sardonic smile. 'I'm glad they didn't try to call my bluff,' the young executive thought wryly. Jacobson looked out over the city, wondering where the traitorous Mara was right now.

The doors opened, and he stepped out to see his team hard at work. They each carried a modified electromagnetic scanner, a technology he had modified to pick up more... exotic energies. The tallest technician all but ran over to him.

"Fairchild," he said, giving her a respectful nod.

She thrust her scanner at him, "Look at this, sir!"

Jacobson's eyebrows went right up, looking the readings over. 'It's almost exactly the energy use profile I had expected, but it's so much stronger,' he thought, more than a bit surprised. Daley was looking over his shoulder, but it didn't bother him too much. A layman couldn't easily decipher the readings, anyway.

"Where are the reading's strongest?" Jacobson asked her, handing the scanner back to her. She trotted off, and he followed a bit more slowly. They went into a twisted warren of metal beams, eventually reaching a clear area in the center. He tested with his own scanner, frowning thoughtfully as he paced back and forth.

"Not just that," Fairchild said softly, pointing out an small irregularity in the readings, "it seems that someone was able to disrupt whatever was going on."

He looked around thoughtfully, trying to spot a pattern in the twisted metal. "Do we have a recon drone in the van?" he asked out of nowhere.

Fairchild nodded, "Two, actually." She looked at him thoughtfully, then her eyes widened as she looked around, "An overview, of course!" She talked softly into her wrist communicator, then reported, "Drone launched."

He reached into his coat pocket, pulling out his personal organizer. Pressing a few buttons linked it up to the drone, and he guided it over the site, until it was directly above them. "Interesting," he said thoughtfully, looking at what seemed to be several circles within circles, a exotic pattern made up of pieces of bent and twisted metal. After a few moments of study, he abruptly said, "Finish the readings, we're leaving."

A few moments later, they were on their way back to Genom. "It was a binding circle, wasn't it?" Fairchild asked him from the driver's seat. "And someone artificially disrupted it, setting whatever was held in there free."

Jacobson nodded, looking over at the red head, "Just like in the books. But I've never seen one this size before." A slight smile, and he took the tone of a teacher to a student as he asked, "Do you know why it was made of iron?"

Fairchild thought about it, then she frowned. "To hold something very, very powerful," she said, almost whispering in her shock.

"Which means we better find whatever it is," Jacobson agreed, "and as soon as possible. I don't want to think of the damage it could do."