The Gate of Sorrows by Miyuki Miyabe Read Free Book Online Page B

murders, but they were having a field day now that there were three killings to talk about.
    People who post frequently watch a lot of television. Kotaro hadn’t realized this until he started working at Kumar. Anything on television became an instant subject for comment on the web. Thanks to this there was no need to watch TV at all. Just by following the comments, it was easy to find out what each announcer was saying on which channel, what the talk show guests were saying, and which reporters were where, all in near-real time.
    People who should’ve known better were saying that the Internet would sooner or later make broadcasting obsolete, but this was a huge miscalculation. The citizens of cyber society relied on television for most of their information, whether they knew it or not. Sometimes important news first appeared and spread on the Internet, with TV playing catch-up, but there were very few players on the web who could match the reach and the muscle that the broadcasters wielded to sift and analyze information. Most people were just posting about something they saw on TV, or adding a comment or two to something someone else said. It didn’t matter what the subject was, the bounce of information from TV to the web was always the same.
    Shinya Inose dropped by at seven. “You guys get dinner too,” he told Kenji and Kotaro. “Fifty minutes. The president is buying. It’s in the lounge. One meal per person,” he laughed. Though no one could outdo Kaname, there were more than a few big eaters at Kumar.
    “Let’s eat and go for coffee,” Kenji said as they headed for the lounge.
    They finished eating quickly and grabbed their jackets from the lockers. Kenji pulled out his laptop case and slung it over his shoulder. Outside, the cold cut like a knife. The two men walked down the street exhaling clouds of steam.
    On the way to the self-service coffee shop, Kotaro explained his problem. When they reached the shop, he went to pick up two cups of coffee while Kenji grabbed a table in the back and started setting up his laptop.
    “Thanks,” Kenji said as he took the coffee. “Two hundred, right?”
    “It’s on me. Consulting fee.”
    Kenji laughed. “I’m not sure if that’s gonna turn out to be cheap or expensive.”
    Kenji’s laptop was loaded with Kumar’s security software. Employees who wanted to work from home had to get Seigo’s approval to load the software, and submit their laptop to a thorough check for file-sharing software. Users also had to change their passwords every week and report the change to their chief. In spite of the inconvenience, more than a few employees put up with it to be able to patrol outside work hours, less out of a feeling of obligation or responsibility than because it had become an ingrained habit. That’s what Maeda had told Kotaro once. He hadn’t quite gotten to that point, but the bug had already bitten Kenji.
    “We look for basically the same thing you DI guys do, so you could probably do this yourself.” Kenji wiped his hands with a wet tissue and turned to the keyboard. “Then again, if you’re really close to this person, it would be better for me to handle it. We see a lot of people libeling each other in this job. If it’s aimed at someone you know, it can be pretty shocking.”
    Kenji opened two windows on his desktop—work window on the right, watch window on the left.
    “What’s the school name?”
    “Aoba Middle School.”
    “That’s a pretty common name.”
    “Oh, right. It’s Ikuno Municipal Aoba Middle School. In Niban. I live in Oto, same as Mika.”
    Kenji input the terms and scanned the hits. “ ‘Cherry Town?’ That’s a pretty name.”
    “It’s one of those tract housing developments.”
    “Hmm. And Mika’s a freshman. Okay. Does she have a nickname?”
    “I’m not sure. My sister just calls her Mika.”
    “Has she ever sent you an email?”
    “Mails, sure.”
    “Do you remember how she signed them?”
    “No. Sorry,