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    Mask of the Demon
    Mask of the Demon
    Mask of the Demon
    Ebook217 pages4 hours

    Mask of the Demon

    By Niall Teasdale

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    About this ebook

    Someone is killing women in Chiba, leaving the bodies wearing a Noh mask. The case is assigned to Tatsu Yamada, one of Chiba’s top detectives, but when the killer shifts targets to Tokyo, the cyborg policewoman is faced with as much politics as policework.
    Plus, there’s a missing cat...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNiall Teasdale
    Release dateJan 31, 2022
    ISBN9781005323431
    Mask of the Demon
    Author

    Niall Teasdale

    I'm a computer programmer who has been writing fantasy and sci-fi since I was fifteen. The Thaumatology series is, therefore, the culmination of 30 years work! Wow! Never thought of it like that.

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      Book preview

      Mask of the Demon - Niall Teasdale

      Mask of the Demon

      A Tatsu Yamada Novel

      By Niall Teasdale

      Copyright 2022 Niall Teasdale

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

      If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Contents

      Part One: Murder Behind a Mask

      Part Two: Cyborg

      Part Three: Angels and Demons

      Part Four: Masks

      Epilogue

      About the Author

      Part One: Murder Behind a Mask

      Tokyo, Japan, 4th October 2099.

      The motorcycle looked like a big, black, mutated insect, its headlights like gleaming eyes. It threaded its way through the traffic on the Metropolitan Expressway with some difficulty and not at the speed its passengers had expected to travel. The reason for that became obvious when it reached a police roadblock and stopped. Heaving a sigh, Tatsu Yamada dismounted her ride and started toward the nearest uniformed officer.

      Behind her, Sachiko Kobayashi said, ‘We’re going to be late.’

      ‘We’re going to be late whether I help with this or not,’ Tatsu replied. ‘We might even get there faster if I lend a hand.’

      ‘Well, okay… Just don’t get shot.’

      Tatsu checked the officer’s ID as she approached. She knew most of the cops in Chiba on sight, but this one was a Tokyo cop and Tatsu did not know her. ‘Officer Shinohara, what’s the situation here?’

      Shinohara turned her head, scanned up and down Tatsu’s body, and said, ‘You need to return to your vehicle, ma’am. We have a dangerous– Oh!’ She stopped as Tatsu fished her ID out of her bag and held it up to be seen.

      ‘Sergeant Yamada, out of Chiba. What’s going on? I haven’t seen any alerts.’

      ‘Probably hasn’t been sent outside of the local area yet, Sergeant. Some guy stopped a conveyor in the middle of the expressway and started shooting at people with an automatic weapon. We’ve identified him as Shō Miyake, unemployed, lives in Onitaka. He’s got his hands on an urban assault weapon and he’s firing out the side of the conveyor. We’ve got three injured, but we can’t get to them without him shooting at us. We’re waiting on a negotiator from Sakurada Gate, but it’s Sunday and they’re slow to get moving.’

      Tatsu sighed again. ‘It must be nice to work in Tokyo. My boss wouldn’t even think twice about dragging me out on a Sunday night at a minute’s notice. Look, if we wait for this negotiator, those injured people will be dead people and I’ll miss my restaurant booking. You have no idea what it took to get that booking. I’ll take care of the gunman, but you lot have to make the arrest and take care of the paperwork.’

      ‘What?’

      Tatsu walked straight through the electronic barrier set up to stop traffic and started toward the epicentre of the commotion. ‘Just let whoever’s in charge know that I’m on it. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.’

      Tatsu took her pistol from her bag as she walked steadily toward the gunman. She checked the load: baton rounds. That would probably work. It was pitch dark tonight and several of the overhead lights on the expressway had been shot out. There would be portable lights brought up soon enough to illuminate the scene, but for now they were in darkness. Despite this, Tatsu could see perfectly. Visible, ultraviolet, and infrared sources combined in her vision to give a perfectly adequate view of the damaged conveyor and its occupant doing his best to keep his body out of sight within the vehicle. She also spotted the three injured victims lying on the road. Besides them, she could make out heat sources suggesting that four more people were trapped inside vehicles. What a mess.

      She pulled up data for Shō Miyake. Being a cop, she could get a lot of data on just about anyone, but there was not much on Mister Miyake. He was a hikikomori, a shut-in with deeply rooted social anxiety issues. Old-style hikikomori had just been people who did not go out. Modern ones were the same, but that could be said of a lot of perfectly well-adjusted people, so the term had come to be used for those who did not even leave their homes virtually. Modern hikikomori avoided all human contact where possible, so what had got this one out in a conveyor, shooting up the expressway?

      Well, that was not Tatsu’s problem. She settled her pistol on her hip and came to a stop about twenty metres from the gunman. ‘Mister Miyake? My name is Tatsu Yamada. Could I talk to you?’

      ‘No! You’re one of them!’

      ‘Well, that’s probably true, but which them are we talking about, Mister Miyake?’

      ‘Them! You’re one of them!’ Miyake swung out from the door, turning the muzzle of his stubby assault weapon with its twin barrels toward where he thought Tatsu’s voice was coming from. UAWs were designed for use in close combat by assault teams. They had a rapid-fire assault rifle on top and a shotgun below. You could load various rounds into the shotgun, but the most common was shot or flechette. The rifle could fire six hundred rounds a minute, though the magazine only held forty. Tatsu pulled the trigger on her pistol and there was a whine as the small missile it fired rocketed across the gap to strike the UAW on one side. The round deformed, pumping as much of its kinetic energy as possible into the weapon, and the gun was ripped out of Miyake’s hands to strike the conveyor’s doorpost and then spin away across the tarmac.

      Screaming incoherently, Miyake leapt out of the conveyor and started running toward Tatsu. Then a second baton round hit him in the chest, tossing him four metres through the air to land on his back. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.

      A query produced his MedStat colours: yellow and lime. Alive, not badly injured, and probably not using Kannon. That was fine by Tatsu. If he had been running Kannon, his mental indicator would probably have been a lot worse than lime-green, but that was not her problem. She turned on her heel and started back toward Shinohara.

      ‘He’s down,’ Tatsu said as she approached and then walked past the officer. ‘Get in there and sort out those civilians.’

      ‘You’re not going to help?’ Shinohara asked.

      ‘I really had trouble getting my dinner reservation, Shinohara. My girlfriend’s been looking forward to this for two weeks. If we’re late, she’ll dismember me and feed the parts into a trash compactor.’

      ‘You walk straight up to a guy with an assault rifle with you wearing a party dress, but you’re worried about your girlfriend?!’

      ‘Yeah, well, all he can do is shoot me.’

      ~~~

      The restaurant they were going to was a Japanese–Western fusion sort of affair, and they were not late for their reservation. Getting said reservation had taken a call to Haruka Yamauchi, online news celebrity, who had called the restaurant to ask that her friend ‘and famous policewoman’ be granted the pleasure of dining there. Just being a famous policewoman had not been sufficient to get a table this year. Or the next. Basically, if it turned out the food was not up to expectations, both Tatsu and Sachiko were going to be sorely disappointed.

      The man in reception waiting to seat people bowed like he meant it, even if he was not sure what had just walked in. ‘Welcome to Shinzō to i. Do you have a reservation, madam?’

      ‘Tatsu Yamada,’ Tatsu said. She was not sure why he was bemused; they had tried so hard to look like they belonged in Tokyo.

      For once, Sachiko was not wearing one of her own creations. Tatsu had spotted the dress in a window on a business trip into Tokyo to wrap up the Yukiko Shiratori case. It was all red leather with chrome studs and a few zips. The skirt was down past mid-thigh, which was practically unheard of in anything Sachiko ever wore. It was strapless, but not low-cut. It was pretty staid for the naked cage dancer. Her long black hair was loose, as usual. She looked like a very attractive Japanese girl. There was nothing there to indicate that she lived in Chiba.

      Tatsu was in one of Sachiko’s creations, but it was not too risqué. It had a halter top that covered Tatsu’s expansive chest, and the skirt was pleated and short, but not indecently short. Both of those were in a shimmering purple material, and between them was a boned corset-like section with mesh panels between the bones. She was wearing purple pumps with an ankle strap and a platform, which helped make up the height difference between the two of them. Maybe it was Tatsu’s hair, which was short and purple. Maybe the guy was not used to purple hair.

      ‘Of course, Miss Yamada,’ the man said. ‘Please, follow me.’

      The table was not exactly in a prime location, but the place was nice all over and they both preferred to be sitting somewhere out of the public eye. A lot of people came out to restaurants like this one to be seen in a restaurant like this one. It was expertly decorated in a mix of Japanese and Western styles. The wall they were sitting next to had a massive reproduction of a classic Mount Fuji painting on it. More toward the front, one wall was decorated with what looked like the Mona Lisa as depicted by Andy Warhol. Tatsu considered the decorative scheme eclectic.

      The table also came with menus already in place. Two menus each. One of the reasons they had selected this restaurant was that it catered to cyborgs as well as more purely organic humans. The menus were pre-placed so that no one had to ask for a cyborg menu and so reveal to other diners that they were at least partially mechanical. Tatsu selected the cyborg menu and began examining its contents. Tatsu was about as mechanical as you could get without being a robot. Only her brain remained organic, though you could argue over her skin. It was not human skin, but it was not exactly inorganic either. Her new body, as supplied by Izanami less than a month ago, was special; even the metal parts were capable of regenerating when damaged.

      ‘I don’t know why I’m looking,’ Sachiko said. ‘I’m going to have one of their steaks. They’re famous for their steaks.’

      ‘If your menu is even vaguely like mine, you still have to pick from about ten different types and cooking methods,’ Tatsu replied. ‘There’s bound to be more they can do with real steak than they can with my kind. I’m also having steak, by the way.’

      ‘Good choice. Haruka said to go with something simple. Maybe just a pepper sauce for the spice. She said it was heavenly.’

      ‘Well, this is her kind of place. I can see, oh, a dozen people I recognise from news feeds stuffing their faces.’

      ‘Yeah, but this is the same woman who begs us to take her to the Hole. She’s kind of grounded for a celebrity.’

      ‘I suppose she is. Okay, they’ve got a ribeye steak with a peppercorn sauce option. I’m going for it.’

      ‘Sounds good. Do you think we should move in together?’

      Tatsu looked across the table, eyes wide. ‘It’s a good thing they haven’t served the wine yet.’

      ‘You don’t like the idea?’

      ‘I did not say that. Just asking out of the blue like that is a bit of a surprise, that’s all.’

      ‘So, you do like the idea?’

      Tatsu took a second to put down her menu and also to do a reboot on the conversation. ‘You’ve thought about it?’

      ‘I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit. I think it’s very practical. With our combined salaries, we could afford something quite nice. Two can live as cheaply as one, especially when one of the two only eats once a week. And I like the idea of waking up beside you every morning.’

      ‘Huh. That I can’t promise. I’m a cop.’

      ‘You know what I mean.’

      ‘We could look into it. I agree that it’s practical. And that we could afford somewhere better than the places we have.’

      ‘Wouldn’t be hard.’

      ‘Right. We can look into it. Um, I quite like the idea of waking up to you beside me on a more frequent basis too.’

      ‘You’re such a romantic,’ Sachiko said, grinning.

      ‘I try my best.’

      ~~~

      ‘That,’ Sachiko said, ‘was absolutely awesome.’

      Tatsu had finished a few minutes earlier and was waiting for Sachiko to clear her plate. Sachiko had almost cleaned the surface off the plate. ‘I agree. I think that might be the first time I couldn’t tell I was eating food for a cyborg.’

      ‘You should recommend this place to Nakano. He can bring Mika here.’

      ‘Yeah, in about two years.’

      ‘Well, there is that.’ Sachiko raised her wine glass. ‘Happy birthday, Tatsu.’

      ‘You’ve said that already.’ Tatsu lifted her own glass and accepted the toast anyway. ‘I’m only thirty-eight. It’s a year like any other.’

      ‘This is the year I met you, and it will be celebrated.’

      ‘Shouldn’t we be doing that at New Year?’

      ‘If we do it now, we can do it again then and have twice the fun.’

      ‘When you say fun…’

      ‘I mean sex. We can have twice the sex.’

      Tatsu frowned. ‘Unless you’re going to clone us, I don’t think that’s possible.’

      ‘Maybe not, but we can try our best.’

      Chiba Refugee Zone, 5th October.

      Tatsu rolled out of bed with a groan and headed for the shower. They had taken a room at the Dream Castle, a love hotel they frequented, for the final stage of the birthday celebrations, and they had used the hell out of it.

      ‘I did not get enough sleep,’ Tatsu said.

      ‘Neither did I.’

      ‘Yeah, but you can go home and get a few more hours.’

      ‘True. And I will. I’ll think of you. Promise. Well, I’ll dream–’

      ‘You leave me out of your dirty dreams.’

      Sachiko giggled. ‘You want me to dream about someone else?’

      ‘Well, when you put it like that…’

      ‘Are you up to anything at the moment? Is this going to be a good day or bad?’

      Just to remind herself, Tatsu pulled up her case list. There was actually not that much to look at. ‘Nothing exciting. The gangs haven’t fully settled yet. Most of the violence is down to that. Drug dealing is down because the new distribution routes are still in flux. Generally, things are kind of quiet.’

      ‘Think it’ll stay that way?’

      ‘Oh, hell no. I’m not sure how long we have to wait, but things in Chiba will warm up again soon enough. Enjoy the quiet while you can.’

      ‘Believe me, I plan to.’

      11th October.

      ‘This is, um, different,’ Tatsu said.

      ‘It’s creepy,’ said the forensics tech beside her. ‘Creepy is what it is.’

      They were looking at the body of a woman found in an alley in Tsuboicho. From the outfit she was wearing, sex was her trade. Probably legal prostitution, though she was yet to be identified. The reason for the lack of identification was also the reason for the creepy vibe. The woman was wearing a mask.

      ‘That’s a Noh mask, isn’t

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