"Welcome back and how was it?" " Oh, they were just thugs!" " Nothing to do with the syndicate..." " Dammit, was just a salaried employee..." " ...they just wanted money to play with." " ...that gave into his temptations." " They went to the cops penniless!" "Then what?" "All of you caught the criminals, but no clue about the bounty we're really after?" "They still use paper just for all the complaints." "Dammit, they're just harassing us." "AND, it's a waste of valuable resources!" "The e-mail server is going down from the sheer number of complaints." "There is a movement out there to sue our company for damages..." "What the hell are the bounty hunters doing!" "?" "We already have a huge bounty on him!" "Yes, however..." "AMIGO!" "All you bounty hunters in the Solsolar system, how are y'all doing?" "Once again, it's time for BIG SHOT!" "We'll start with today's hot news!" "They apprehended the culprit in the series of recent Gate assaults!" "Really?" "The bounty on him was 12 million Woolongs, right?" "But the weird thing is that 20 culprits were apprehended!" "What do you mean?" "Apparently, they were all caught in the act, but none were the mastermind." "Then you don't get the reward unless you find that mastermind?" "But of course!" "Oh, my..." "I feel sorry for all the guys who caught the culprits!" "Why the hell do these thugs that normally just rob convenience stores attack at the Gates?" "Maybe there are fads in crimes?" "Like "Hyperspace Gates are the I N thing among today's fashion-conscious kids!"" ""That girl won't even look your way until..."" ""...you assault at least one Gate!" or something?" "Hey, guys." "Why don't we trade the information that we each have?" "And split the bounty three ways..." "What do you mean?" "You're the one that started all this, saying that we should research this case on our own." "You also said that the occasional rivalry between comrades would be good for us." "Come on, did the reward amount make you lose your memory?" "What?" "You guys were really keen on the idea too!" "After all, we all wanted the bounty to ourselves, right?" "In this case, all20 cases were done the same way..." "All of them infiltrated the tollbooth deftly attached the hacking unit and in the exact moment that passing ships access the tollbooth to pay the toll they steal the entire balance from the credit card." "Furthermore, the unit automatically sent the money data that it just stole." "It immediately launders all the funds in a bank on Europa making it impossible to track where it went..." "All the culprits that were caught in the act have nothing in common." "Age, gender, nationality, religion, criminal record..." "And on top of it, nobody has any of the money that they supposedly stole." "Well, that's about all I know." "How about you?" "The guy that I nabbed said that he was just following the instructions from a manual that he got through mail-order." "Perhaps the other culprits are reading the same manual that he was?" "Manual?" "This." ""A new criminal support software."" "" Right now, it's a real bargain." "For the low introductory..."" ""...price of30000 Woolongs, you too can be rich!"" "What the hell?" "It's not easy to be a thief nowadays." "I'm sure there are people who want manuals to help them." "And where is this mail-order company?" "It's a store that's only on the 'net, so I don't know where it was." "Besides, the store has already closed." "Spike, how about you?" "The hacking unit that was placed on the Gates was something that couldn't be made unless you knew about the Gate system really well." "The mastermind's likely someone who has some connection to the Gate Corporation." "That was my hunch, and I investigated that front..." "The programmers would be fishy." "...but the guys from the Gate Corporation suddenly became uncooperative." "It was as if they knew something, but didn't want us to find out about it." "Are you dead?" "Where were we?" "Well, I guess those are the only clues we have for now..." "Gimme that." "Gimme." "Yeah." "This is a memory cartridge for playing chess over the 'net." "This piece has one match in its memory." "And, when you push it, it connects to the 'net." "See?" "And this has something to do with this incident?" "Nothing at all." "Maybe all of this is a game..." "For now, continue playing that game with the opponent." "Yup." "I'll go talk to the Gate Corporation guys once more." "Lesse..." "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe..." "Play ball!" "Another bounty hunter?" "I don't care, send him back." "But he's asking about a chess-loving programmer..." "What?" "!" "Jet!" "What, Jonathan, were you another one that went through all the trouble to get nothing?" "This thing isn't that easy." "I believe we have given out all the information." "What more are you saying you would like to know?" "Sorry, but there is no smoking allowed in this building." "Oops." "I'm so sorry..." "Actually I had something that I wanted you to see..." "What is it?" "This is a planned game." "You guys at the Gate Corporation should know what this means." "I mean, to put a bounty on a mastermind that we aren't even sure exists suggests that its someone you don't want the police to know about, no?" "Bounty hunters should just look for their bounties." "I don't know who you are, and whether or not you used to work for the ISSP, but it's better for you to not make any extra inquiries." "He's going home." "Make sure he is kindly escorted out of here." "Damn this old piece of shit...!" "I believe our risk is too great." "If that gets out to The general public..." "I am fully aware of our risk." "If we don't catch him, the situation will just get worse." "But why is a ghost from 50years ago coming back now...?" "To think that he gave everyone a chess piece..." "Chessmaster Hex..." "So it IS a game that he set up..." "Chessmaster Hex..." "No good." "This doesn't have anything other than chess data in it." "I wonder what they were going to do with such a thing..." "If there is no meaning to the content, maybe the pieces are the message..." "Great, great!" "Spike, I have a name..." "Can you investigate the guy?" "He might be the mastermind behind this whole thing." "Hey, Ed." "Ed's really busy right now." "Here, here!" "Checkmate!" "...or so you thought!" "I'll fork the king and the rook!" "Indeed!" "This is either an idiot or a genius!" "I like this chap...!" "Chessmaster Hex." "Estimated to be 98 years old." "A programmer that had been dubbed a genius from his teens." "I n the Cosmo-net chess tournaments, he dominated the champion's seat for decades." "He began work on the Hyperspace Gate control program when he was 30 and created the central control system that all Gates use to this day." "However, that was his fatal error." "He started to doubt the safety of the Gates he helped create and was against putting them to practical use." "As a result, he was banned from the Gate Corporation." "Ever since, his whereabouts have been unknown for 50 years..." "So he's the mastermind behind our current string of crimes..." "What do you mean...?" "I mean, why is he seeking revenge 50 years after the fact?" "If we figure out where he is, we'll know for sure." "Hey, Ed." "Ed's really busy right now." "Hey, you, quit playing games so much and help out a little..." "Ed, we want to figure out where a guy named Hex is..." "Hex..." "Hex..." "The Chessmaster!" "?" "That's who I'm playing chess against right now!" "We're almost at the location we got from the trace we did on Ed's chess opponent." "You guys standing by?" "I really don't like this." "I mean, he's basically giving us his exact location..." "Can we even trust that trace in the first place?" " Ya think he'd be in a dump like this?" " No, I think it was... that." "I had heard once that there was a place where all the scrapped remains of obsolete Gates were gathered along with scrap metal and abandoned spaceships and that there were people that started living there." "Why the hell do they want to live here of all places?" "That area has no nationality, nor a government." "You don't have to pay taxes, and there are no cops." "I see..." "It's the perfect place to hide yourself." "It might be a trap..." "This might be the continuation of the game." "Whatever happens, happens." "Looks like we have air." "Then there is someone here..." "Yo, Jet." "Jonathan!" "How the hell did you get here?" "Thanks for leading the way!" "You... were following us the whole time?" "Tough luck for you, but I have Important business with that guy." "So I'll be going ahead." "What the..." "What?" "How the hell..." "What is this?" "What is this?" "Hi!" "Peace to the world and love to my bank account!" "You want one?" "Wow!" "Amazing!" "Chessmaster Hex?" "All right, give up!" "You guys..." "Can you be a little quieter?" "Old man!" "Don'tjoke with me!" "Hey, wait a minute." "You won't get away with pretending to be senile!" "Who are YOU?" "If you don't hand over the money you stole you'll get a nice hole in your brain!" "That's a big tube you got there..." "Hey, whatcha doin', Hex?" "You gotta hear this." "It's my first formidable opponent in quite a while!" "Must be some player if you have trouble winning!" "But before that, where's lunch?" "What are ya saying?" "You just ate lunch a while back!" "Oh, is that so?" " Really, you've lost so much ofyer mind..." " Who are these guys?" " ...that all you can do is play chess!" " Dunno." "But you know, this old fogey..." " Have ya lost it?" " Like you can speak..." "You..." "To..." "To think my life savings are never coming back..." "Damn..." "Goddammit..." "Anyone and everyone, you and that guy over there..." "The world is all a mistake!" "What are we gonna do?" "This old man doesn't seem to remember anything about yesterday, let alone 50 years ago!" "That's right." "Hex is no longer here." "Here we merely have an old man that loves games..." "Back then, Hex was riled up for revenge, and planned this all out." "He made it so that this incident would happen 50 years later during the one moment that the Gate program gets automatically updated." "Even making those that physically commit the crime hold chess pieces to hint that it was his doing." "However, to that old-timer, 50 years was too long." "He went senile, and had completely forgotten about the traps that he himself had set..." "Well, it works out better foryou this way." "Because now you don't have to worry about the fundamental defect in the Gates leaking out." "Although, the price you paid was that WE learned about that defect." "What do you want?" "Money?" "Or... are you planning to leak this information to the press?" "J ust leave that old guy alone." "That's all I want." "It's a good deal, isn't it?" "Ed would get lonely if she lost her chess partner..." "You're playing that thing again?" "Not again." "Still." "Still...?" "You've been playing that thing this whole WEEK!" "?" "Yeah." "I see." "Well, good luck." "Yo, newcomer." "You seem happy today." "Hi!" "He's a really easygoing fellow, isn't he?" "That he is..." "Checkmate." "I lost..."