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The Company
Time: Thursday, August 15, 2013 (night).
Place: Seoul, South Korea.
Last Event: One last visit to Chez Gae.
After warning Klas, Lev, and Paul not to wait up, Anabel, Jili, Qoqa, and Wen turn in for the night. On Friday morning, Anabel takes advantage of a casual breakfast with her hosts to ask Mr. Gae about the possibility of low-profile transportation to Geneva, hinting that a discrete private flight would benefit his security, too, if anybody is keeping an eye on commercial air travel. Gae doesn't need much convincing – he comments that he would be sending a representative to meet with Swiss banking interests in less than two weeks anyway, and agrees to move things up and include some extra passengers. The only catch is that the group would have to wait until Monday morning. The Agents are happy to accept those terms.
When the team is reunited at their hotel on Friday afternoon, consensus is to keep a low profile over the weekend. However, everyone agrees that Jili should use the time to exploit her knowledge of Asuka's false, Company-assigned identity to try to pick up her digital trail. All Jili manages to discover is that Asuka's last social media activity was on Monday, August 12. Her doings immediately prior to that silence aren't terribly informative: lots of chatter about boys, bands, and clothing . . . the usual. Jili proclaims that she would need hardware access to learn more, which means visiting the Sakata household in Geneva.
Qoqa tries to get a head start on that by phoning Chaturvedi and finding out what he knows about Asuka's disappearance. All of the handler's information is secondhand, provided by the Artist (or is it Mrs. Sakata?). Apparently, Asuka seemed angry about something on the night of August 12 and was gone the morning of August 13. The Artist noticed that the girl had packed clothing and travel documents, and Sakata's "ninja" saw her board a taxi to the airport. Chaturvedi says that's all he was told – that, and a very exasperated "I knew this was coming."
Changing tacks, Qoqa asks Chaturvedi whether Sakata tracked any activity on Asuka's debit or credit cards. It turns out that was the first thing he tried, but he found nothing. Sakata also tried to trace Asuka's communications, as the girl packed her phone and tablet, but that proved fruitless as well. It looks as if Asuka either was grabbed by enemies of the Company or intentionally dropped off the grid. The former seems unlikely, given the depth and quality of her new identity; the latter feels all too likely for someone who was raised by gangsters and who now lives a secret life thanks to a world-class computer criminal and his clandestine backers. "Great role models" sums up matters nicely.
Eventually, Qoqa gives up questioning Chaturvedi and makes two requests on behalf of the team. First, she asks that he tell the Artist to leave Asuka's room alone. Second, she puts in an order for evidence-collection gear, high-end computers, and clean cell phones, to be waiting for the group in Geneva. Chaturvedi concludes the call by agreeing to all of this.
Come the morning of Monday, August 19, the Agents are packed and ready for more than 16 hours of planes and airports. Their travels begin at Incheon International, where a private flight ensures that they remain largely out of sight. Whether because Mr. Gae pulled strings or the Company's false IDs are just that good, there are no security issues at all – in less than an hour, the team is airborne. The entire journey is likewise without incident, and ends at Genève Aéroport at around 16:00 local time.
On the ground in Geneva, everybody keeps a wary eye open for lurking foes, but even Paul cannot spot anyone acting especially strangely. Initially, the Agents consider visiting the Artist at once – but then Anabel remarks that since Asuka was last seen right here, at the airport, it wouldn't hurt to ask a few questions first. Qoqa points out that Asuka is obsessed with cosmetics, handbags, phones, and shoes, and would definitely shop if she had more than a few minutes to kill. Anabel knows exactly what brands Asuka prefers, so it wouldn't be difficult to zero in on the right shops and ask if anyone saw the girl during the past week. Of course, that would require a pretext . . .
After a brief discussion, the Agents concoct a workable ploy: Anabel will pose as a WHO investigator, based here in Geneva, seeking a recent traveler who might have been exposed to a serious communicable disease. Thanks to her past life as an actual UN employee, Anabel figures she could lie well enough to deceive shopkeepers. Just to make sure, Qoqa provides Anabel with a spiel to use and a few convincing technical terms to toss around. Then Anabel gets to work while her associates fade into the crowd and watch her back.
Anabel has no trouble with her subterfuge or with convincing the staff of various businesses to chat with her. However, after a solid hour of speaking with some very sincere and helpful salespeople and managers, it becomes quite clear that nobody of Asuka's appearance and tastes has been through the concourse shops recently. Anabel even has photos of Asuka to show around, but the pictures don't jog anybody's memory. Whatever Asuka was doing here, she didn't do it on this side of security.
Which leaves the other side. Once Anabel is done, the Agents head out to the taxi stands to see if anybody there saw Asuka. Qoqa reminds Anabel that the girl is prone to throwing around large sums of cash, and is as likely to be remembered for her over-tipping as for her appearance. Anabel proceeds to ask anybody who looks like a fixture whether they've seen the wealthy young Japanese woman in the photo.
Before long, Anabel finds herself directed to a German-speaking cabbie named Judith. Judith definitely recalls Asuka, because the girl was subject of some gossip after casually dropping a €50 tip. Some generous "tipping" by Anabel sharpens Judith's memory: It seems that after exiting a cab here at the front entrance, Asuka met a young man whom she greeted with a passionate kiss. Then the couple got into a car with two other men and drove off. Judith cannot remember much about the vehicle, other than that it was green and had Italian plates. Anabel thanks the cabbie and rejoins her associates.
The next stop is the Sakata household. The Agents decide to be cautious about this, just in case, and catch a series of three taxis to get there, changing cars at random locations along the way. Once again, everybody is vigilant, Paul in particular, but nobody sees anything to worry about. Eventually, the third and final set of cabs drop off the team close to their destination. A short walk brings the group to a grand old townhouse in an upscale end of town.
One of Sakata's ninja greets the Agents at the door; he remembers them from Kyoto, and is quite cordial. Some silent signal brings the Artist close on the man's heels. She's relieved to see the group. She's clearly at her wits' end regarding Asuka, claiming that the girl had been acting very strangely up until her disappearance. It's evident that the Artist has few details about why this might be so. Asuka largely kept to herself in her rooms on the top story, and didn't want for . . . well, anything, really.
After a light and enjoyable supper with the Artist, the group climbs upstairs to check out Asuka's chambers. Both the Artist and several of the ninja assure the Agents that the place is exactly as Asuka left it. They knew that her disappearance would trigger some sort of investigation – though it was uncertain whether that would be by the sûreté or the Company. Anabel thanks them and then it's time to get to work. The entire team pores over every square centimetre, sacrificing subtlety for thoroughness:
• Anabel looks through closets and drawers, hoping to find clues hidden in Asuka's clothing. Digging in pockets and handbags, she turns up some ticket stubs for parties at clubs here in Geneva. She also finds a small baggie containing what she suspects is drug residue.
• Jili sticks with what she knows best, checking out Asuka's sound system and many music players. She finds playlists filled with an obscure kind of techno music popular in Italy this summer – including some new, unreleased mixes from an Italian act.
• Lev and Klas, poking in every dark corner, turn up two shoeboxes (bearing the logos of expensive brands, of course) under the bed, each full of old phones and tablets. That is, "old" in the sense that they're not the latest model – Asuka changes phones as often as most people change socks.
• Paul looks for smaller, subtler clues, and finds one recurring theme that captures his interest: ticket stubs and bracelets from numerous parties held at nightclubs around town.
• Qoqa puts her forensic and medical skills to work looking for more . . . biological traces. And she finds them. She turns up somebody else's hairs on one of Asuka's outfits, along with dandruff that's unlikely to be Asuka's, given the girl's fastidious nature. She also finds some rather sticky panties disposed of in a trash can.
• Wen spends her time checking the balcony and windows. She finds no evidence of illegal entry – or of legal-but-unconventional entry, for that matter.
After the first pass is done, Anabel hands Qoqa the suspicious baggie, while Klas and Lev direct Jili to the boxes full of phones. Qoqa digs through the gear that Chaturvedi dropped off for the group and finds what she's looking for: test reagents for drugs. A quick series of tests reveals that the residue is that of a highly substituted phenethylamine – that is, some sort of designer drug. Meanwhile, Jili's efforts discover that Asuka's more recently rejected phones contain logs of many conversations with an Italian musician named "Lu©a."