Part 27: Too Predictable

And with the bomb solved, we're done with both Act 2 and Disc 1.



This is the graphic from ENGLISH.BIN that we removed from the game. We liked it so much that I recycled from the original game's INSERT DISC 2 graphic. There's also an INSERT DISC 1 graphic that we changed as well... but the game never uses it. Once you've switched discs, you won't be going back to Disc 1 unless you load a savegame. And if you do, you just get game text.

Anyhow, onto Act 3.







Umpteen orders and regulations violated, a damaged squad car AND public property... and gunfights on Beyond. Eighteen people were injured because of you! The phones have been jammed with complaints all day. Your actions have reduced us to a shambles.



Leave this to AP. I know they have a different style from you two, but it's no longer our world. Let the next generation handle this. You're not some kid anymore, Ed. You can't keep playing these games your entire life. Think about what just happened! We nearly had a bloody hole in the colony!
Dave's got a few bloody holes in him.



Jonathan, you're not a Policenaut anymore, nor are you an officer here or even a Beyond. You were a Policenaut, yes, but that was a long time ago. You're a visitor here, nothing more. I'm sorry about what happened to Lorraine, I am. But this is different. I can't keep covering for you. I've been good to you since we're old friends, but it looks like I made a mistake. I can't allow you to continue to carry your weapon. It stays here until you leave.



You still don't get it, Ed. You've got a nice pension and a pretty good record waiting 3 years from now. You need to start behaving yourself. Pull anything else and that'll be it. You'll be throwing away your career as an officer and your legacy as a Policenaut. This is Tokugawa, for crying out loud!
I know exactly how Tokugawa works. He's absolutely involved in all this.



Jonathan, please. You'd better have a slam-dunk case with that lot. You need evidence even they can't dismiss. You two are on your own now.
Dave was killed, Gates! One of your own!
I know. But you have to understand where I'm coming from. You can't even begin to imagine the pressure I'm dealing with.
You don't even have a handle on your own organization! At least one of your thugs is a snake in the grass.
Here we go again. Why don't you take some time off, Ed? That's an order. Go... take the kids somewhere nice, I don't know. Jonathan.... Try to forget about this and enjoy your time here. I'll have AP continue the Hojo inquiry. Something comes up, I'll let you know. This isn't a request.
What if we CAN get something? That won't come back and bite you.
IF you find something, then we'll talk. Ed, I'll expect a report on my desk tomorrow morning. We'll talk after that. Dismissed.

I'll full well admit that the realistic thing to do is get the hell out of there, but if you like:

Look; Gates

Yikes, see that vein? Never seen that before.
More excuses to rattle off?

Talk; Gates

Hey, Gates?
We're done here. Get out of my sight.
Hold on, Gates. We just have a few questions.
Promise you'll stop causing trouble?
I promise.
And start behaving?
Yup.
You swear?
I swear. On a provisional basis.
Big bloody surprise. You never could make a deal with Jonathan Ingram. Well? What do you want to know?

Ask About; AMM

There should be the body of somebody connected to that biker inside AMM.
The report only mentions Ishida's body.
That's impossible! We shot a guy in a spacesuit in the Moon Corner.
There have to be bullets, blood and fingerprints all over the place, not to mention the bike.
I didn't get any reports of that.

Ask About; Crime scene evidence; Bullets

I got into several gunfights with them. There should be bullets from their guns lodged in the walls at AMM and the linear rail station, not to mention the train.
There were, but with lift guns it's impossible to identify the gun from a bullet.
What about the riflings?
The gun doesn't leave a rifling mark on the bullet. That's why this kind of gun is so popular amongst criminals.

Ask About; Crime scene evidence; Fingerprints

What about fingerprints?
It's a museum, for Christ's sake. It gets thousands of visitors a day. It would be a nightmare trying to extract fingerprints for forensic purposes.

Ask About; Crime scene evidence; The bike

What about the bike that was used?
Turns out it was stolen. The bike matches one in a stolen vehicle report filed by someone in OLA. It looks like it was smuggled here from Home. We didn't obtain anything from it connecting it to the perpetrator, unfortunately.

Ask About; Crime scene evidence; Blood

What about blood? The blood from that guy I killed should be there.
As I mentioned, apparently the only blood they found belongs to Ishida.
What about blood on the linear rail platforms and the train?
I haven't heard anything about that.
Seems like the blood we collected is all there is.
What blood was that?
Blood from the biker we collected at the scene. It appeared to have come from him after he was shot.
I'd suggest we have AP analyze that, but our hands are full at the moment. I guess you'll just have to get Victor to do it for you.
We will.

Ask About; Crime scene evidence; Massquitos

Where did the massquitoes at AMM come from? You figure out anything from their serial numbers?
The massquitoes which had collected around Ishida had originally been sent back to Tokugawa Heavy Industries from BCCH and various other hospitals on the colony because of malfunctions in their control circuits. However, Tokugawa are insisting they never received them. They say the whole thing was a slip-up on their side, and they plan on conducting an inquiry to determine who was responsible.
That's it?
Even that by itself is causing an uproar.

Ask About; Crime scene evidence

So there's nothing, not one single piece of evidence. That's just wonderful. Whatever happened to working a crime scene, Gates?!
Tokugawa are essentially the owner and operator of AMM. We can't inspect the crime scene until they give us permission. That's the way it works here.
Tokugawa's flunkies might be tampering with evidence.
I honestly don't think they'd do something like that... but they could if they wanted.
God dammit....
They're clever, they're prudent and they've got the finances to back it up. This is their territory. Make a mistake and they'll make you pay for it.

Ask About; Dave

What's happening about Dave?
According to the report, when AP arrived on the scene Dave's body was nowhere in sight. You're... certain he died, are you?

Asking about Ishida reveals that, surprise!, Gates doesn't know anything, but he recommends talking to Victor.

Ask About; The biker

Right before Dave died, he told us Redwood was the biker. I saw that guy's eyes myself. I swear to you it was him.
Redwood is an exemplary member of this unit. I can't imagine him being involved in something like that.

Of course, asking about Redwood or the bomb doesn't get you anything, except that Redwood's away on assignment, collecting EMPS chips from Tokugawa Heavy Industries.

Let's get out of here.

Move; Back

We're clear on this, right? You need real evidence before you even think of touching Tokugawa.
Yes, chief.
I'll level with you. There are rumors Tokugawa's planning on buying up AP. But I promise you I'll do everything in my power to maintain its integrity. Let's keep the Redwood thing to ourselves until we know more.



Ed doesn't have a follow-up to this, strangely. At any rate, we really should be talking to Meryl and Victor, but first one quick detour:

Move; Shooting Range



We're at the shooting range. Wanna practice? This thing ain't over yet.
How can I?
You can use mine. It's a lift gun, but same idea, of course. Go ahead.
You sure?
Well... not like things could get any worse. Always helped me take my mind off stuff. If you use 10-round mags it won't be that different from your recoil.



One nice touch is that when we use Ed's gun, it actually does look different than Jonathan's. That's all I had to show you.

Move; Vice



You guys really look like hell.
You okay, Meryl?
Yeah, I'm hanging in there. Can't say it's gonna be easy.
Did you learn anything?

So this is GAME04.SZ which is the same script file... that we've always used for Vice. In fact, the script is the same on both discs (and I got Dave dying spoiled for me due to that.) All the gameplay script files are just repeated for both discs, the only differences between the files on each disc being that they have different pointers for different VOX files.

Look; Flowers

Who put these flowers here?
That's lavender I had shipped in cryogenic storage from Home. The inspection plants have to go through is a real pain in the butt, but they were Dave's favorite.

There's a carving on the wall, as well - normally we couldn't see it because Dave was in the way.

Look; Aiaigasa

What's this on the wall?
Dave carved that with my knife.
It looks like Japanese. What's it say?
It's an "aiaigasa".
Aiaigasa?
It's a common graffiti in Japan.
You put the names of a man and a woman under an umbrella. Kinda for good luck.
So whose names are here?
Dave's and mine.
I see.
We didn't know what it said until this cop from Japan was here.
You should've seen the chief. He was so pissed. He tried to buff it out, but it didn't work. I'm glad. It's a nice memory.
The guy didn't always explain everything he did.

The envelope on Dave's desk is empty: It reads "Grand Prize" and Dave got it from "some video game company," but it's empty and if it's a reference to something, we don't learn more about it.

Look; Elles Bag

You've got that here?
Like I said, it doesn't suit me, but that doesn't matter. Dave gave it to me.
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it.

Ask About; Dave's Whereabouts

Have you found out what happened to Dave?
I checked with some informants and hackers, but everything leads to a dead end. Same as Hojo - gone without a trace.
Why do you think they took Dave's body? You think he's still alive?
I don't know. Why would they feel the need to hide his body?

Meryl doesn't seem to have any more insight on the evidence than Gates did, so off to Victor.

Move; Forensics



It's about time! It's been years since anything like this has happened here.
Don't get too excited, Victor. We... we lost Dave....
Really.... Still, you guys did the right thing.
Thanks, Victor.
Don't let it get you down.

Show; Blood sample



Victor, you're one of the few people we think we can trust here. Can you analyze this artificial blood for us?
Where'd you get it?
The guy who killed Dave.
Good thinking. We'll be able to classify it.
Classify? You mean we can't prove whose it is?
Gorby will tell us the manufacturer and version, then I'll take it from there. The only ones who use this first-generation stuff are either AP or military. If it's an AP, we can nail the bastard by checking the dialyzer and transfusion data. This blood was developed for use in areas of low oxygen density. Its oxygen transportation efficiency is better than regular blood. A normal person can't use it. Not without gene therapy first.
Thanks. It just might belong to one of our friends here.
Just know it'll take a bit of time. I can't stand AP either. No respect for their elders. Then there's what they did with those capsules. He won't find out about it this time.

Ask About; The biker

Victor, I shot that guy over a dozen times and he still didn't go down. Is that even possible?
Shot him with what?
My recoil.
You use hollow points?
No, armor-piercing. They go straight through the body. They're not like dum-dums.
Well, if he's a heavy Narc user it's possible. And if he's using artificial blood, it wouldn't surprise me at all. You don't have to worry about blood loss if you're using artificial blood. But if you hit him with a number of rounds in one or more of his vitals, he'd be in some serious trouble.
Good thing we picked up that blood.

Asking about Ishida reveals that BCCH is doing the autopsy, so he doesn't know. Apparently that's the usual for Beyond, and he doesn't like it. Same for the hitman at AMM. But there's one thing we can ask about.

Ask About; His thoughts on AMM

Did you learn anything from the crime scene VREs?
It's hard to say from just the VREs, but with the amount of blood I saw, I'd say Ishida's head was cut off after he was already dead. I don't think the massquitoes are what killed him. He wasn't killed at AMM either. It's kind of strange, but it looked like Ishida put up almost no fight at all when he was killed.
Why do you say that?
His body was too clean. Normally when someone is killed like that, you see clues on the body that point to homicide - defense wounds like subcutaneous bleeding. It didn't look like he died instantly either. I won't be able to tell you the exact cause of death unless I can perform an autopsy on him myself, before any discoloration of the body takes place. There's almost no doubt in my mind Ishida was killed somewhere else and taken to AMM afterwards.

Ask About; Body management

Who's in charge of a person's body here when they die?
Beyond doesn't have a medical examiner system like most big cities on Home. They've got it that way for the sake of organ transplants. Bodies are usually sent to transplant hospitals like BCCH for any postmortem examinations that are required. If you wait too long to extract the organs after the examination they spoil.

Alright, well, Victor's not going to have the blood analysis ready for some time yet, so let's head back to Vice.



Ask About; Redwood

If the biker is Redwood then where is he? Gates says he's away on assignment.
I'd be surprised if he could walk in that condition. He definitely isn't around here. It would be plausible if he really isn't the biker. He couldn't have survived what happened there anyway. Dave and I shot him six times.
I got him fifteen times.
If that's the case, has his body gone missing too? You know, I can't get something out of my mind. Remember at the bag store, after Dave disappeared, there was that EMPS that looked damaged?
Yeah, the one carried away by the others? I'm pretty sure that was Redwood's.
Wait! So he was inside it?
No, I don't think so. There was blood coming out its knee, remember?





Red blood.
Yeah, and APs use white.... I bet you they used it to carry Dave away.



But why?
That I don't know.
Can we prove it?
I could do a luminole test for Dave's blood on Redwood's EMPS. It won't take long.
Watch it. We don't know who's who in this place.
Right.

Back

Why don't you try sneaking into Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals again?
I'm leaning that way myself.
You serious?
All we need is some hard evidence and we've got 'em where we want 'em.

Move; Lobby



Go Outside

Ready to take this to the next level?
You mean what Meryl was talking about?
Damned right. We go in there and find it ourselves. Remember that area in the back?
That's where you think it is?
If it isn't, I'll be leaving early, and you'll be looking for another job.
Not this again....
Don't worry. It'll be there. The guard said that's where they produce their "samples", right? If we can just bring something back, Gates will have to make a move.
In theory, yeah.



Fortunately, there's another car and no one minds us using it.

Drive

There's another car we can use. Try not to damage any more.
As I recall, you were the one driving.
No, you see.... Whatever. No point arguing with you.

Tokugawa Pharmaceuticals

Alright, let's go.
Why don't we take the long way? In case we have company.
Good idea. That's something the chief would do. We'll go the "scenic route".