Once in my room I felt peace coming over me like a blanket. Wonderful. Just to get away from it all. I took a hot bath, got into bed and fell asleep almost immediately. But after an hour I woke up again. I walked up and down the room, feeling restless. “This is no good. I’m going crazy here.” I decided it would be better to get out and take a long walk. I missed my uploads. I was kicking the habit, that’s what it was. Outside I was okay but as soon as I got back to my room where there was nothing to do at all, I got restless again. Every now and then I broke into a sweat and had to go outside quick. Eating, walking through town and sleeping. This way I got to see quite a lot of Tokyo but it didn’t register much. I behaved like a tourist but I was a wreck, ready for the shrink.

I felt better on the night of the second day. I could face staying in the hotel lobby now, so I killed the time reading newspapers and drinking whiskey there. As I sat there a shadow suddenly came over me. I looked up. A man was standing next to me. I didn’t recognize him right away but as he sat down in front of me I realized it was Paul Bentley. “Ah Adrian, I see you’ve composed yourself a bit”, he began. “Yeah, I’m starting to get better, I can concentrate a little and I’m well rested now.” I answered. Paul started filling me in. First about Sonja, that she had been given the assignment to kill Rosanne. I couldn’t believe what I heard. It worried me. “Is she really going to do it? Surely there must be a way we can stop it?”, I asked. Paul assured me that wasn’t the real intention. He explained his plan to me.

Rosanne was going to fall off a high building, but she was going to have a parachute. The first hundred meters down would be recorded on an M-store. But only until the parachute opened. The proof of her fall (on the M-store) would be Rosanna’s safeguard and rid Sonja of her assailants. It seemed a good plan to me. That is, if one dares to jump. “But why are you telling me this?” I asked Paul. “You also have a role to play in this plan.” He told me that if the assailants would see me falling to my death on the M-store as well, it would make it a lot easier for Tachikawa to escape from the network of crooks who are after his scientific knowledge. They want everything he has developed for themselves so they can use it to make big bucks in the porn- as well as the computer games industry. “They also know that you’ve done a lot of work for Kodjiro and that you possess the results. If you die, doctor Tachikawa can never get his belongings back and he would be free from his assailants as well.

 “So I have to “die”?” I asked, making sure I was worried for the right reason. Paul nodded. He asked if I had ever jumped before. “No, that’s one of the things in life I like leaving to others”. I asked him if it was really necessary. I didn’t have to get to the edge on the roof of some building to get scared. I was already in a cold sweat. After Paul convinced me that nothing could go wrong I agreed, but I was still a bit hesitant as I had my doubts. But, we agreed to link up in Osaka and he showed me the location on a small map. The next day at 12.00 a.m. I would meet Sonja there.