June 4, 2440, 6:45 p.m.

The ferry horns rolled across the harbor like slow thunder, deep enough to tremble through the railings underfoot. Heat still clung to the concrete, carrying salt, diesel, hot steel, and the smell of machinery through the evening air.

Matt and T’mari reached the security gate just as the cameras found them again.

Then the photographers realized D’ren and S’ola were coming behind them, and the flashes started all over.

Dave Yamamoto and Ueyonabaru Tansho eased forward through the noise, yellow windbreakers bright against the darkening docks. Neither pushed anyone. They did not have to. The way they moved made space appear.

“High Lord Marmaduke, will the V’ren be attending the Tokyo Summit?”

“Ambassador Th’ron, how have you found Japan’s hospitality?”

T’mari inclined her head.

“Your country is beautiful. Japan is a second home to Matthew, and the other V’ren and I have been made very welcome. We are looking forward to seeing the country from the sea. It is a trip he has wanted to make for a very long time.”

Matt gave the press a small nod.

“Thank you for letting us pass.”

The restraint quieted the crowd more effectively than a speech would have. Questions continued, but softer now, beneath the click of shutters and the low whine of drones circling for one last angle.

Tansho broke from the formation to check the boarding queue. She spoke briefly with the dockmaster, swept the loading area once more, then returned.

“Clear to proceed, High Lord. We embark on the next bell.”

The extra formality was deliberate enough that Matt glanced at her.

Tansho gave him nothing back.

They had known each other too long for that.

Like Matt, she had come out of Amazon’s Security Quartermaster Corps as an investigator, one of the people sent to find what did not add up before somebody decided what to do about it. She had also carried the other qualification Matt rarely needed and never forgot she possessed.

If he ever needed quiet work done permanently, Tansho could do that too.

He had hired her into Marmaduke Logistics security because he trusted both halves of the package.

Most days he wanted the investigator.

That suited her fine.

There had been a time, early on, when she had wondered whether he wanted anything else.

He had not.

Standing beside T’mari now, loose and comfortable despite the cameras, Matt looked annoyingly good.

Tansho was not jealous enough to dislike T’mari.

She was, however, perfectly capable of envying her.

The company gossip had never helped.

The Freehold had too many Japanese and Nordics for communal bathing to be noteworthy, and Marmaduke company retreats had always followed local custom. Saunas, baths, hot pools, towels that stayed where they were supposed to until they did not. Nobody particularly cared.

Which meant enough people at ML had seen Matt naked over the years that rumors about his body had never required much imagination.

Most of the stories were bullshit.

The ass was not.

Tansho had verified that personally, repeatedly, and without needing to make a project of it.

Farm work, riding, fighting, and whatever genetic joke had been played on the rest of mankind had left him built like someone had taken an athlete and forgotten to remove the useful parts when he became an executive.

Buns of sprung steel.

Some facts did not require peer review.

“Two local security teams on the upper walkways, sir,” Tyrell said. “Keisatsu-chō confirmed.”

Matt nodded.

“Good. How is Alice?”

Tyrell laughed without taking his eyes off the surrounding railings.

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

That got a grin from Matt.

There were several layers to the answer.

Tyrell had grown up in the northern reaches of the Freehold, where tiger patrols were not a joke, metaphor, mascot, or colorful local tradition. You learned to watch tree lines, drainage cuts, livestock behavior, and anything that made the birds stop making noise.

After college he had worked a succession of jobs around Marmaduke Logistics before eventually landing where his instincts were most useful.

None of that had prepared him for Alice Park.

Matt understood.

That was part of why the two men had become friends beyond the boss-and-employee relationship.

They were both Alice veterans.

Alice Park had been a Columbia Traffic Lady in her youth, which meant considerably more than the name suggested to anyone who did not know Columbia.

After the fall of the Kims in 2132, refugee migration had carried an extraordinary portion of Pyongyang’s traffic women, cadet classes, and training cadre into Columbia. The city had not merely inherited refugees. It had inherited enough of an institution to keep reproducing it.

Three centuries later, the Columbia Traffic Ladies were thoroughly Columbia, but the lineage remained real.

Alice had come through that tradition.

Mostly Korean, beautifully trained, disciplined enough to control an intersection full of impatient drivers with posture and a raised hand, and almost impossible to embarrass.

Then she had gotten older, acquired money, accumulated marriages, and discovered that college campuses remained full of attractive young men who had not yet learned to recognize danger.

Alice treated Mizzou less as a university than as a preserve with seasonal permits.

She had been in her forties the first time she tried to seduce Matt when he was a freshman.

Matt had escaped.

Mostly.

Tyrell knew the story because Alice had told it.

Matt knew Tyrell understood because Tyrell had eventually married into her family and then, after the collapse of Alice’s eighth marriage, acquired her as a permanent domestic feature.

Shared adversity built friendships.

Tyrell glanced toward D’ren and S’ola.

The two young V’ren had already demonstrated considerable interest in the parts of local history that official cultural briefings somehow neglected to mention.

Neither had actually asked him about Alice.

They had merely failed to ask with remarkable precision.

Tyrell gave them a look that promised later.

D’ren caught it immediately.

S’ola did too.

Matt saw the exchange.

“No.”

Tyrell looked innocent.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to.”

“I was thinking.”

“That’s how this starts.”

D’ren looked between them.

“In my defense, High Lord, I do not know what this is.”

“You’re going to keep it that way.”

S’ola turned toward Tyrell.

“Later?”

Tyrell nodded once.

Matt pointed at him.

“Traitor.”

“Friend.”

“That is increasingly debatable.”

The ferry horn sounded again.

They waited near the loading ramp while the ship’s lights turned the harbor water bronze. Farther down the quay, passengers had begun realizing exactly who was standing among them. Some lifted phones. Others simply bowed from a distance.

A child waved a small paper flag.

T’mari noticed, smiled, and waved back.

The response moved through the watching passengers almost visibly, hesitation first, then smiles, then several more hands going up.

Behind Matt and T’mari, D’ren and S’ola returned to the practiced stillness expected of pages.

D’ren leaned forward just enough to be heard.

“They are nervous, but not hostile.”

He said it in Japanese.

Matt answered him in V’ren.

“Good. Nervous keeps people careful.”

D’ren’s mouth twitched.

S’ola looked from him to Matt, understanding both sides of the exchange and wisely contributing nothing.

A final horn sounded.

The gangway shuddered as the deck crew locked it into place.

Dave moved first, scanning the steps and the boarding level beyond. Tansho followed half a pace behind, her attention moving across the upper walkways, cargo access points, hands, sightlines, reflections in glass.

Matt noticed.

He always noticed when she was working.

That was why he had hired her.

Tansho looked back once.

Clear.

Matt turned toward the photographers.

“We’ll see you in Tokyo.”

No wave.

Just a nod.

Then he turned back to T’mari and offered his hand.

She took it.

He left the respectful space between them that he had learned mattered here.

T’mari noticed.

She said nothing.

Together they stepped onto the gangway.

D’ren and S’ola followed, then Tyrell, Dave, Tansho and the rest of the security detail, while the cameras flashed behind them and the ferry lights stretched across the harbor in broken bands of white, blue and gold.

ARTICLE 1

Marmaduke Leaves Hiroshima by Sea, and the Pages Steal the Cameras Again

Japan Evening Wire, June 4, 2440

Matthew Johnathan Boone Marmaduke and T’mari Th’ron boarded their overnight ferry from Kitakyushu Wednesday evening, closing the Hiroshima portion of their Japan visit with considerably less ceremony than attended their arrival.

Photographers gathered at the terminal initially focused on Marmaduke and Th’ron, then discovered Japan pages D’ren Th’kai and S’ola T’rinn walking behind them and began another round of photographs.

Asked about Japan, Th’ron called the country beautiful and said the V’ren delegation had been made welcome.

“Japan is a second home to Matthew,” she said, adding that the sea journey was one he had wanted to make for years.

Marmaduke largely declined questions, thanking reporters for allowing the party through and promising, “We’ll see you in Tokyo.”

The quieter moment belonged to passengers already waiting to board.

Several bowed from a distance. A young child waved a small paper flag toward Th’ron.

She noticed and waved back.

Within seconds, more passengers were waving.

The delegation then boarded under mixed Japanese and Freehold security, with Marmaduke taking Th’ron’s hand before stepping onto the gangway.

For a tour increasingly defined by cameras, it was an unexpectedly ordinary departure.

Social responses

• @KitakyushuLocal: The little kid waving at T’mari and then half the waiting area joining in was adorable.
• @JapanPageWatch: The photographers spotting D’ren and S’ola behind them was comedy. Entire press line pivoted.
  • @DrenFanJP: They are celebrities now whether they like it or not.
• @TokyoTeenFeed: S’ola looked SO composed.
  • @KyotoStudent: Page training is apparently serious business.
• @FreeholdLocal: Matt: quietly boards ferry. World press: ANALYZE THE HAND HOLDING.
  • @EuropaPanelParody: Panel convenes at 0900.
• @HiroshimaReader: I liked that this departure was small after such a heavy day.
  • @JapanEveningWire: That contrast was noticeable at the terminal.
• @VrenObserver: T’mari waving to the child looked almost instinctive now.
  • @FirstContactArchive: Five weeks ago every gesture would have been stiff protocol.
• @FerryNerd2440: Forget diplomacy. Which ship are they taking?
  • @TransitJP: Finally someone asking the important question.
• @AntiMarmaduke: Still absurd that an alien High Lord is doing a tourist ferry trip during first contact.
  • @KitakyushuLocal: Heads of state are allowed to take ferries.
• @OsakaSarcasm: “We’ll see you in Tokyo” has strong dad-leaving-a-barbecue energy.
  • @FreeholdLocal: That is because Matt is spiritually always leaving a barbecue.
• @TmarisFanClub: She wanted to see Japan from the sea. Let her have nice things.

---

ARTICLE 2

The Woman Watching the Walkways

Security & Logistics Review, June 5, 2440

Most photographs from Marmaduke’s Kitakyushu departure show the High Lord, T’mari Th’ron or their increasingly recognizable V’ren pages.

Security professionals noticed Ueyonabaru Tansho.

Tansho, a former investigator within Amazon’s Security Quartermaster Corps, now works within Marmaduke Logistics security and has appeared repeatedly near Marmaduke during the Japan tour.

At Kitakyushu she moved ahead of the principal party, checked directly with port personnel, returned to the formation, then continued scanning upper walkways and cargo access routes during boarding.

Her background helps explain why.

Marmaduke himself previously worked within Amazon security investigations before his later corporate career. Tansho comes from the same professional culture, where investigators were expected to understand logistics, personnel, fraud, internal threats and operational irregularities rather than simply stand beside executives wearing an earpiece.

That distinction matters during a tour like this one.

The threat environment is not necessarily hostile. It is simply complicated.

Crowds, drones, media, port personnel, local police, ferry crews and dozens of uncontrolled sightlines all have to coexist around a globally recognizable principal.

Tansho’s visible role suggests Marmaduke continues to prefer security personnel who investigate the environment rather than merely react to it.

At Kitakyushu, very little happened.

For security work, that is usually the desired result.

Social responses

• @SecurityNerd Finally someone noticed Tansho.
• @AmazonOldHand Quartermaster Corps investigators were never just fraud auditors.
  • @SecurityNerd: Exactly. They were operational investigators first.
• @FreeholdLocal Tansho has the terrifying skill of looking relaxed while noticing everything.
  • @MarmadukeEmployee: Yes.
• @PortSecurityJP Upper walkways, cargo access, queue, crew interface. Good pattern.
  • @ProtectiveOps: Nothing theatrical, which is usually a good sign.
• @HighLordStan Why does Matt’s entire staff look like they could kill me?
  • @FreeholdLocal: Some of them are accountants.
• @LogisticsBro Security Quartermaster Corps producing both Matt and Tansho explains a lot about ML culture.
  • @AmazonOldHand: Investigate first, fix the system second.
• @AntiCorporateState Private corporate security around a sovereign remains weird.
  • @PolicyWatcher: In his case the corporate and sovereign systems overlap heavily.
• @TokyoPressWatch Interesting that local Japanese security remained visible but did not crowd the Freehold detail.
  • @SecurityNerd: Layered security usually works better when everyone knows their lane.
• @FerryWorkerJP She spoke to dock staff like normal people instead of treating us as furniture.
  • @ProtectiveOps: Good investigators always talk to the people who actually know the site.
• @MizzouOps “Nothing happened” is the best compliment security can get.

---

ARTICLE 3

D’ren, S’ola and the Gossip They Were Definitely Not Asking For

Columbia Evening Ledger, June 5, 2440

The most Missouri moment of Matthew Marmaduke’s ferry departure may have lasted less than ten seconds.

During final security checks at Kitakyushu, Marmaduke asked longtime Marmaduke Logistics employee Tyrell how Alice was doing.

Tyrell laughed.

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

Anyone familiar with Columbia needed no further explanation.

Alice Park is one of those local personalities who has accumulated enough stories to become a minor institution herself. Mostly Korean by ancestry, Park served in her youth with the Columbia Traffic Ladies, whose institutional ancestry reaches back to the Pyongyang traffic personnel, cadets and training cadre absorbed by Columbia during refugee migrations after the fall of the Kims in 2132.

Later generations know Park for other reasons.

The considerably younger men around the University of Missouri have certainly known her name.

Apparently D’ren Th’kai and S’ola T’rinn are beginning to discover this portion of Columbia culture.

Cameras caught Tyrell exchanging a look with the two V’ren pages after the Alice remark.

Marmaduke immediately said, “No.”

Tyrell protested that he had said nothing.

“You were about to,” Marmaduke replied.

When S’ola asked Tyrell, “Later?” he nodded.

Marmaduke called him a traitor.

Tyrell answered simply:

“Friend.”

First contact has reached Columbia gossip.

Humanity may be doomed.

Social responses

• @ColumbiaLocal: OH GOD THEY FOUND ALICE PARK.
  • @MizzouAlumni: We had a good run.
• @JapanPageWatch: S’ola asking “Later?” immediately tells me she understood there was gossip available.
  • @SolaFanJP: Diplomatic intelligence gathering.
• @FreeholdLocal: Matt saying NO before Tyrell even opened his mouth is friendship.
  • @MarmadukeEmployee: It is also experience.
• @DrenFanJP: D’ren has no idea what he is about to learn.
  • @ColumbiaLocal: Nobody is ever fully prepared for Alice stories.
• @TrafficLadyArchive: Please remember Alice Park had a serious civic career before becoming campus folklore.
  • @MizzouAlumni: Both things can be true. Very, very true.
• @KoreanMissouriHistory: The Columbia Traffic Ladies surviving through the 2132 refugee cadre remains one of the coolest pieces of local history.
  • @TrafficLadyArchive: Cadets plus trainers mattered. That is how the institution reproduced itself.
• @HumanChaosEnjoyer: V’ren page studies Japanese protocol, international diplomacy and apparently Columbia cougar history.
  • @DrenFanJP: Complete cultural immersion.
• @MattMarmadukeFan:
  “Traitor.”
  “Friend.”
  That is an entire twenty-year relationship in two words.
  • @AllenRosendale.ArrowRock: Pretty much. A lot of them seem to go that way.
• @MizzouStudent2440: Wait, Alice Park is STILL around?
  • @MizzouAlumni: Some forces of nature cannot be stopped.
• @JhulTuma: The pages are learning that unofficial human history is often more important socially than official briefings.
  • @MaggieLittleton: Congratulations, they have discovered gossip.
• @AliceParkFanClub: Everyone acting like Alice should be embarrassed by any of this has clearly never met Alice.
  • @MizzouAlumni: Correct. Alice would probably provide corrections.