wanted man, remember? However, we are not without friends in

the Bureau. And in this case, I’m led to believe that we can even

expect a certain amount of cooperation from the police. It seems

that Kobayashi has some sort of an arrangement with them.”

“So we leave in the morning?” asked Makepeace.

“Not you, Sebastian, ” Modred said. “I’ll need you here. Have you

forgotten our young computer criminal? I’ll need you to stay here

and keep an eye on Pirate while he completes his work. I’ll call him

and let him know that you’ll be taking charge.”

“You mean you’re going to go ahead with it?” asked Wyrdrune.

“Of course, ” Modred replied. “Kobayashi was a stroke of luck.

We’re still crippled without access to proper data. In order to find

the other Dark Ones, we’ll need the ability to access police and

Bureau databases throughout the world. And Archimedes is simply

not up to that task. His new storage capabilities will accept the G.

H. program, but he is simply not sophisticated enough to operate it

properly. We need a hyperdimensional matrix unit. ” He paused.

“And come to think of it, as luck would have it, the problem of

obtaining the necessary components has just been rather neatly

solved.”

“How?” asked Wyrdrune.

“Simple, ” Modred said with a smile. “In lieu of my fee, I’ll have

Kobayashi get them for us.”

“Steal them, you mean, ” said Merlin.

“How he does it isn’t my concern, ” said Modred. “But he will do

it.”

“What makes you so sure?” asked Wyrdrune.

“I spent some time in Japan, ” Modred said. “In many ways, the

Japanese are a very admirable people. Quite possibly the most

civilized people on the planet. Their social structure is complex and

their customs are often intricate and fascinating. They make rituals

and ceremonies out of such things as drinking tea and arranging

flowers. It sounds rather peculiar to someone who grew up in the

West, but after you’ve been there for some time, you come to

appreciate and understand these things. You see, the Japanese still