Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thanks to Keen for introducing this series to me. It's on YouTube, of course. It's about a secret organization that uses walking cellphones to fight cybercrime. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-tai_Investigator_7
Phone Braver 5, part 1

The door slid open at a touch. Arisha shoved back the hair from her eyes again, focusing on the small apartment's open foyer. She pulled out her cellphone and flipped it open, entering the four digits that would cause the phone to expand into its other form, a two-legged, two-armed, small man-like figure, with wide grey eyes and a perpetual smile along its screen.
"We need to find the computer, buddy," uttered the phone.
Arisha was gazing around the room, looking at all the different artwork. She could easily be distracted by what was on the walls, or a sculpture in a corner, being initially an art student before being recruited into Under Anchor just a short year ago. Although her art appreciation got their initial attention, it was her underlying ability with akido that kept her there. She was a short, half-French woman that carried mostly Japanese features, with the exception of her eyes not being quite as almond shaped and her skintone betraying her southern-French bearing. Darker than most Japanese, she could still easily blend into a crowd.
"But this vase is from the Edo period - "
"Buddy, come on!" The phone was already racing into the apartment.
Sighing at having to step away from the ancient piece, she followed the green colored cellphone down the narrow corridor. It skidded to a stop as something turned the corner to face his buddy.
"What're you doing here?" snarled a man.
"Your door was open," she said, advancing, her hands up in a gesture of submission. "I wanted to make sure you're all right."
"I'm fine," he growled in response.
"You shouldn't leave your door open," she continued, backing away with one step, attempting to draw him away from the cellphone that darted into a nearby room. She kept her eyes on the man, and smiled gently. "Are you trying to attract pretty young women?"
The man snorted at her. At any other time, she would have taken offense, but she needed to keep him busy while her buddy examined the hard drives on the computer to find out whether or not the cyberporn that was pouring onto the local city website actually came from this computer. Instead, she smiled sweetly, trying to turn on all her charm.
"Get out, if you please, and I won't report you to the police," the man said.
She counted mentally in her head, the necessary five seconds it would take for her cellphone buddy to access the computer. "I will," she commented, "but I was just admiring your vase over here..."
The man's face lit up for half a second before returning to a serious mode again. "What about it?"
"It seems it's from the Edo period, am I correct?"
Now his eyes narrowed. "How do you know?"
I used to track art thefts before being hired by Anchor, she could have said, but instead smiled again. "Oh, I know a little bit about artwork. Do you have any other pieces?"
Glancing down, she saw her cellphone, Fiver, peek around the corner and give her a thumbs-up. She focused her eyes on the man again. She bowed slightly and watched as Fiver hugged the wall, barely passing the man's foot. "I have taken up too much of your time," she said, then reached out her hand. Fiver jumped from the floor, retracting his form and landing squarely in her hand. Arisha didn't stop to see the man's reaction, and instead bolted out the door.
"He saw you," Fiver cried.
"No shit," Arisha replied, turning a corner swiftly and running down the stairs. She threw open a door to outside then doubled back, ducking under the stairwell. As she expected, a man's heavy footfalls echoed around her, and the door flew open, sending light and dust in her direction.
"How long do you plan on staying here," whispered Fiver.
"Sleep mode," Arisha snapped.

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