Warcross (Warcross #1)(56)

“They’ve been with me since I was fifteen,” Hideo says as he steps around the table toward me. “You’ll have to forgive them if they’re occasionally overprotective.”

“Maybe they think I’m a danger to you.”

He smiles as he reaches me. “And are you?”

“I try to restrain myself,” I answer, returning his smile. “For now, I’m just here to tell you what I found.”

“I’m assuming you discovered something interesting in the Dark World?”

“Interesting doesn’t even begin to cover it.” I glance around the office. “I hope you’re ready to settle in. I’ve got a bunch of information for you.”

“Good, because I was thinking we try something different with our meeting tonight.” His gaze lingers on me for a beat longer. “Have you eaten yet?”

Is he asking me to dinner? “No,” I say, trying to stay casual.

He takes a dark gray peacoat off the back of a chair and pulls it on. Then he tilts his head once toward the door. “Join me.”





18



We end up in Shibuya, right in front of a skyscraper with the name Rossella Osteria floating at the top of it. We take an elevator to the roof of the building, where a set of tall glass doors slides open for us. I walk into a space that makes my jaw drop. A segment of the floor is made of glass, real glass, not a virtual simulation, and through it swims a stream of gold and scarlet koi fish. Vases of flowers adorn marble pedestals around the edges of the restaurant. The entire place is empty.

The host hurries over to greet Hideo. “Tanaka-sama!” he exclaims in Japanese, bowing his head low. In his nervous gestures, I can see myself when I first met Hideo, falling all over myself under Hideo’s serious stare. “A thousand apologies—we didn’t know you had scheduled anyone to come with you tonight.”

He sneaks an anxious glance at me. Suddenly I realize that he must think I’m Hideo’s date. Maybe I am. I shift awkwardly on my feet.

Hideo nods at him. “No apologies needed,” he replies in Japanese, then glances at me. “This is Miss Emika Chen, my colleague.” He holds his hand out for me to walk in front of him. “Please.”

I follow the host, perplexed and hyperaware that Hideo is behind me, until we reach an outside patio framed by ornate pillars and lit by trails of fairy lights. Heat lamps glow in regularly spaced intervals, their flames adding a golden warmth to our skin, and the lights of the city shimmer down below. As we take a seat, the waiter hands us menus and hurriedly takes his leave, so that we—and the bodyguards—are the only people remaining out here.

“Why is this restaurant completely empty?” I ask.

Hideo doesn’t bother touching the menu. “I own it,” he replies. “Once a month, it’s reserved for me and any potential business meetings I might have. I thought you might prefer some Western food, at any rate.”

My stomach growls loudly in reply, and I cough in an attempt to hide the sound. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hideo owned half of Tokyo. “Italian’s great,” I say.

We order our food, and before long, the plates arrive, filling the air with the rich aroma of basil and tomato. As we eat, I bring up my account and send Hideo an invite to join me. “I followed Ren into the Pirate’s Den,” I say.

“And? What did you see?”

“And he was with this guy.” I put down my fork and bring up a Memory of what I’d seen in the Den—the figure in dark armor, accompanied by his proxy, placing bets on the illegal Warcross game.

Hideo leans forward at the sight. “Is this Zero?”

I nod, tapping the table twice. “I’m almost certain it was him. He was hidden behind an armored avatar and this proxy, and he was giving out a lot of information to what seemed to be his followers in the Pirate’s Den. Dozens of followers. This is no lone operation.”

“What kind of information was he giving out?”

“Coordinates of cities. Look.” I pull up the list of numbers I’d recorded, explaining the system of small bets that Zero had been using to pass them along to his followers. Then I bring up a virtual map to hover between us, scattering the coordinates across it. My finger stops at the coordinates 35.68, 139.68. “And this—Tokyo—was the city that Ren answered for. Maybe everyone else also responded based on whatever city they’re physically located in.”

Hideo’s eyes narrow as he analyzes the locations. “These cities are where the largest dome events happen for the championships.” He glances at me. “Any clues as to how many meetings he has already conducted before this?”

I shake my head. “No. But he seems like he’s got a large group. I need another encounter with Zero to get a better sense of what all this means, but the chances of me getting more information from him like that before the games start are slim.”

Hideo shakes his head once. “You won’t need to. We’ll bring him to us. The first official game happens on April fifth. We already know he and his followers will be watching it, and that Ren will be the one assigned to the dome event in Tokyo. It’s likely he will be in direct, encrypted communication with Zero during this game.”

“You want me to hack his system during our game?”

“Yes. We’ll plant something on you in the first official game. Force Ren to interact with you in the middle of it, and it will disable the shields that protect him. It will expose any data between him and Zero.”