Book 6 Chapter 7
The one and only stroke of luck was that Absolute Noah was likely located below Kukyou Dam. That was in the mountains and not far from the communication tower.
“T-Truth. Are you sure this is okay?”
“I’m not exactly happy about it either, but Sylpheed knows the most about Absolute Noah. We have no choice.”
History’s worst tackling sniper fairy was flying around me while still the size of my little finger.
“Can’t you take a human-sized form if you gather enough of your element?”
“Fairies are supposed to be cute.”
We both wanted to pry open Absolute Noah’s door and rescue the people inside, so would we be able to work together for now?
“I can show you to the bottom of the dam, but that’s as far as my authority goes. I can’t open or close Absolute Noah’s door.”
“But there has to be a way,” I replied. “I don’t know when Absolute Noah was planned, when it was completed, or how long it was stored here. But they wouldn’t have just left it to sit until ‘the day’ arrived. Just like an old abandoned house, structures and equipment quickly fall apart when no one lives there. They would have people living there even if just to provide maintenance.”
“What about it, Truth?”
“…Let’s say one of those lowly managers betrays the organization and holes up inside on their own. Would they just cry themselves to sleep because Absolute Noah had been taken from them? Not a chance. They must have some emergency method of opening the door from outside.”
We discussed it while walking along the mountain road. The forest eventually cleared out and we arrived at a large body of water.
This was Kukyou Dam.
…The locals treated it like it was haunted. It was said there were a lot of suicides, that photos and videos would unnaturally blur, and that media crews reporting on it would eventually find themselves in a mental hospital. There apparently was an actual news article about a mayor a few generations back jumping into it, so that may have led to the infamy of the area.
As a dam, it reminded me of Las Vegas’s Hoover Dam, but this was very different from that. It of course could not hope to match the American size of building a reservoir lake in the middle of the desert that rivalled Lake Biwa in size, but that isn’t what I’m referring to.
It was surrounded by dense forest and a sticky humid air. With all the leaves floating in the water, it looked like there was a stagnant film across the surface and the old concrete walls were covered in greenish mold and moss.
…This was the source of the water that flowed from the faucet. Was I simply being influenced by the ghost stories and the data that someone had once floated lifelessly in there? I wasn’t a health-conscious young wife who loved yoga and warm vegetables, but I found myself longing for mineral water packaged in a bottle.
“I see. This is well-suited for Archenemies.”
“Anastasia?”
“Have you forgotten, Truth? I was originally an immortal that resides in old mansions.”
“…All I remembered was that you’re a tiny maid fairy who has the nerve to wear all silk.”
“Bow wow!! Grrr…!!”
Whoa!? She started threatening me with some American-style barking, so I kept my distance. I seriously hoped she hadn’t gotten a taste for biting me!!
“There are three overall sections.” The finger-sized Sylpheed sounded exasperated as she flew around. “The reservoir lake with the arched dam in the center, the hydroelectric power plant that uses the difference in water level, and the communication facility that sends out data on the water quality and water level.”
“But that isn’t all. Right? There has to be a black box that allows them to send in all the personnel and equipment needed to protect the place without leaving any oddities in the paperwork.”
“Some leisure facilities are being constructed alongside the reservoir lake. They’re lakeside things like a fishing hole and a driving range, but with the investigations into effects on water quality, reports on the suicides, sightings of endangered animals, and more, the construction still isn’t complete after a decade. The government office is full of documents and they think it’s no different from some year-end roadwork. That means no one suspects a thing when workers and heavy equipment come and go from the area.”
…But in reality, the plastic sheets covering the site would be full of mercenaries and armored vehicles equipped for the mountains. And those mercenaries would be a mix of human and Archenemy. That was frightening in a different way from the ghost stories.
Anastasia sounded exasperated too.
“They intentionally made it outside construction to avoid drawing unwanted attention to the dam itself, didn’t they? It’s basically the same method used by Congress and gangs.”
If you were only working on the surface of the dam, you might not come across the term Absolute Noah. But that was sad in its own way.
“Just to be sure, we can reach Absolute Noah’s door if we’re with you, right?” I asked Sylpheed. “We won’t just get shot?”
“…With the name Amatsu Satori, we could probably get the door open and reach the depths of Absolute Noah itself.”
“That would be great if true, but after what I did, the ID I never asked for may have been frozen. Sylpheed, we’re relying on you for authorization. Will that work?”
“In that case, Truth…”
“Yes, we need to get to Absolute Noah. Let’s check it out.”
If Las Vegas’s Absolute Noah 04 had been modeled after this as a trap, the structure should be somewhat similar. It was probably at the bottom of the reservoir lake.
We entered the thick concrete building.
A finger-sized fairy guided us, but this dream world was too nightmarish to call a fairy tale.
“…There are people in here,” said Anastasia. “Did the workers not run away during the drone attack?”
“Maybe they didn’t need to when they were already surrounded by thick concrete.”
We passed some men and women in work jumpsuits, but they did not respond to our presence. Not only did we have a finger-sized fairy with us, but the cornerstone of the city’s water infrastructure should have restricted all outsiders form entry. I sensed some kind of implicit understanding here.
We took a few narrow stairways and work elevators further and further down. Until…
“Here? But it only looks like a jumbled mess of machinery.”
“There is an S-shaped path through it. Don’t worry about the steam coming from the pipes. It isn’t actually hot.”
I never would have approached this if she had not told me that. I twisted my body to weave through the gaps and then turned a corner into a large passageway.
We reached an open space.
There was a thick round metal door reminiscent of the door to a bank vault. It really did look like what I had seen below the Hoover Dam.
“…Absolute Noah.”
“Specifically, #00.”
But this one wasn’t a bluff. The wall was thick. When I touched it, it didn’t open as a flimsy door like at #04
“Maxwell, I want to mess with the wiring to open the door’s lock.”
“That is too little information to guide your actions.”
“There has to be a way to open it from outside. That means the wiring must extend outside the door.”
I thought for a bit.
“Check the earthquake-resistance measures or the base-isolation structure.”
“What do you mean, Truth?”
“You might not know since the West doesn’t get many earthquakes, but when something is shaken, making it harder and heavier actually has the opposite effect. It’s more efficient to use dampers or guiderails to let it move like a pendulum, allowing the shaking to escape. But if you have fiber optic cables running through the walls, you can’t have them caught between or pulled by the shaking walls. There has to be excess space inside the wall.”
“I have found it.”
“Check how far it extends. There should be an emergency unlocking console there.”
The diagram displayed on the card-sized screen was our lifeline. We followed its guidance back the way we had come.
We found a contact point so inconspicuous that we had all walked right past it.
“…I see. A security camera, huh?”
I looked up to the ceiling at a corner of the passageway.
It was not well known, but those things were internet devices just like smartphones and cellphones. They were a part of the so-called IoT, so they could send emails and make phone calls. Or be infected by a virus. If you took over hundreds or thousands of them, you could send out a ton of data to bring down a site with a DDoS attack.
Since it was originally a camera, it could easily record the faces of anyone who approached and no one would question its presence. The wiring might be a little unusual, but the average person wouldn’t check the plugs on the back of the camera. And the guard staring at the many monitors in the security room would not think about the state of each individual device unless there was an oddity on the screen. They would never notice someone had tampered with things on the back of the camera.
They were everywhere and yet no one really paid any attention to them, so no one knew what the proper wiring looked like. It was perfect for something like this.
“You just have to attach something to this, right?” Sylpheed flew around near my face. “But what? A hardware key, a fingerprint scanner, or maybe an oscilloscope or cathode-ray tube? There are as many electronic devices as there are stars in the sky.”
“Maxwell, check the security room’s camera footage archive. You can handle the ‘official’ security, can’t you?”
“Sure. As far as I can tell from past footage, the camera is contacted at a regular pace of once every six months. It is always the same person and they appear to be holding a cable.”
“Just a cable? …What about the actual device?”
“They are holding the other end in their other hand, so I cannot tell you that. It is of course possible that they are hiding a stamp-sized device in their palm.”
Anastasia slapped her forehead.
“Bioelectricity…”
“Isn’t that too inexact for authorization? I’m not sure holding an exposed wire would provide a good enough signal to identify an individual.”
“Then they might use a hand cream to increase the conductivity of their palm. It’s a double analog lock using a combination of the individual’s biometric signal and the special cream. It’s a pretty good idea if they were worried about hackers like us.”
“…”
“Unlike a fingerprint or an iris, you can’t acquire someone’s bioelectricity by chopping off a body part. There’s still the risk of someone using stem cells, but that’s where the special cream comes in. See? It really is a good idea.”
“But in that case…”
“We need the person and the witch’s ointment to unlock it. And we of course need them alive.”
…Now, could we really get our hands on those things?
If the person worked part-time, they might not be at the dam. If they had an Absolute Noah ticket, they might be beyond the door already. No, it was also possible the official members had put a bullet through their head before disappearing beyond the door.
What was the best option?
What did we need to investigate to get the key?
“…Oh, I get it.”
“Truth?”
“Maxwell, record that maintenance worker’s face and run a facial recognition search.”
“I can do that, but as they might be inside Absolute Noah, I cannot guarantee I can determine their present location.”
“Their current alibi doesn’t matter. I want to know their daily cycle. Like which section of the dam they work at and where their desk is.”
I naturally started speaking more quickly as I approached the answer.
“If they were in charge of such an important secret, they must have been terrified that their superiors would silence them. So they might have created some insurance for just such an occasion.”
“I am tracking them using facial recognition. Their ID data says they are Gindawara Masuzou, a 45-year-old man. He runs Kukyou Dam’s Water Quality and Water Level Management Section. I have found a passcode split into three parts and disguised as garbage data in his desktop’s system space and temporary file space.”
“Wow did he ever break the rules,” said Anastasia. “The analog lock is entirely pointless now.”
“Combining the parts might create a Trojan horse to strike back at people like us, so be careful.”
“Gindawara was no more than the key,” said Maxwell. “Even if he unlocked the door from there, it would relock after 180 seconds. It was setup so he could not rebel and enter on his own.”
“So it requires multiple actions to prevent someone from shutting themselves in like that. If they had that little trust in him, I can see why he felt the need for insurance.”
This was a purely digital passcode instead of a biometric signal read from the palm. So with a simple addition to the back of the security camera, we could input our own signal remotely.
We only had to return to the large round door and wait for Maxwell’s signal.
“Begin the countdown,” said Maxwell. “The door’s emergency unlocking procedure has begun. It will enter the relocking procedure after 180 seconds, so please pass through quickly.”
“Understood.”
Several metal rods thicker than my arm moved along the perimeter of the door to unlock it. With a loud buzzer, the door, which had to weigh several tons, opened outwards.
What awaited us through there?
What exactly was the Calamity?
I gulped and waited.
“Anastasia, Sylpheed, be caref-…”
“Truth, watch out!!!”
I never heard the rest of what Anastasia said.
A bestial roar stabbed into my ears as a beautiful blonde Vampire leaped toward me from the opened door with fangs bared…
[Support by] Vampires [DELTA brain]
Along with Zombies, they are likely the species with the closest connection to humans. They generally conceal themselves within cities and are inextricably tied to humans by their need to suck blood.
But while they have the intelligence to blend into human society, that does not mean they can be welcomed. For example, insect camouflage is used to deceive their prey, but that does not mean the two different kinds of bugs will get along. The Vampire’s careful study of human life is not always evidence that they care about humans.
Miss Amatsu Erika seemed to have something unique to herself, but if an unknown error removed those restrictions, calculations based on previous experience may fail to predict her actions.
Back to Chapter 6
