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