Vector || An Ryeji Adventure

Mission VI: Upstream Color

Radius was in Seoul. She asked Yeji to meet her at a subway stop near the end of one of the lines. They took a seat on a bench at the end of the platform.

"How did things wrap up in Mongolia?" Yeji asked.

"Fantastic. All the prisoners were rescued, but I have to say, Vector, you're getting sloppy. You left one guard alive."

"You needed someone to interrogate, right?" Yeji grinned.

"We tried, but he didn't really know anything. We found his identity papers and the Chinese said that he is wanted for some pretty nasty crimes, so he's living with them for the rest of his life. We also had to pay the owner of that camel you set free $750. I should deduct it from your pay, but I'm feeling generous today," Radius said, smiling slyly. "I meant to tell you: you were the subject of a screaming match at MI6."

"It makes me really, really nervous that folks at HQ were talking about me. So, details?"

"We got into a shouting match as to whether or not you could kill John Wick."

Yeji exploded with laughter. "You've got to be kidding me! No one can kill John Wick!"

Radius smiled. "But let's say you fought one-on-one. Tell me how you'd approach him."

"It would be a good fight, for sure. For argument's sake, let's say there are no guns. What's challenging is that he can fight standing up or on the ground. That's how I like to do it, too. But my judo is rusty. And he's bigger than me, and that always counts for something. I'm faster than him, though, and I can attack from above, so to speak. But he has one disadvantage, and it's between his legs. Hit that, and it's all over." She paused. "If I'm being completely honest, I think I could take him in less than 30 seconds. I'm not bragging. He'd get a couple of hits in, though. I'm just trying to be realistic." Yeji smiled. "Actually, we got to meet Keanu Reeves on tour in LA. The stories are all true. He's the nicest guy in the world, for real. He went on a Starbucks run for us. Yuna is still in love and plans to name all of her children 'Keanu.' He's so nice he'd make the Dalai Lama look in the mirror and punch himself."

"I should have taken notes of what you just said so I can win the argument. Oddly enough, Keanu Reeves is a retired operator."

"Really!?!"

"God you're naive sometimes," Radius smiled.

"You know," Yeji smiled, "I enjoy our little chats. Maybe we should go on a cruise together."

For the first time, she saw Radius burst out laughing. "Oh, sure," she said. "Then maybe I can be the sixth member of your group. I was in the choir in middle school. Or we can all start a quilting circle."

"You'd always be welcome to try out," Yeji responded with a twinkle in her eye. "So anyway: what's next?"

"Vector, you're going to attack a container ship full of old cell phones."

"What!?!"

"Hear me out. While not many people do it, cell phones can be recycled. If you've ever noticed, sometimes at big box stores they have an electronics recycling box stuck in some corner by the shopping carts. Cell phones contain a variety of extremely rare elements like indium, neodymium, terbium and dysprosium. Don't ask me for any details on them, but trust me: once the metals are recovered, they can be used to build a wide variety of extremely powerful electronic devices - such as supercomputers.

We've learned of a disgraced CEO, Marcus Wright, who plans to build a parallel array of the biggest and fastest supercomputers in the world. He got mindbogglingly rich creating HR infrastructure for Fortune 500 companies. He's going to use it to take over the cryptocurrency market, by not only generating his own, but by decrypting current tokens. The value of this market is about $1 trillion. Crypto is still pretty exotic for most people, but it's now a key part of the financial system. If his plan succeeds, he'll hold the economies of the ten wealthiest nations on Earth in his hands."