Chapter 514: Comprehensive Inspection

The plane decelerated a bit more.

The scenery outside the porthole was moving slower and slower, and the outlines of the ground service vehicles on the distant apron were already visible.

Emi temporarily put the pile of capital, investment banks, and Wall Street behind her, suddenly remembering another matter that was more relevant to herself.

"By the way, the external name for this trip is a comprehensive inspection, right?"

"Hmm?"

"Then what does my side count as? Scientific research cooperation?"

"Mm."

Satsuki turned her head.

"Have the people on the team arrived ahead of schedule?"

"Mr. Kawakami sent a message yesterday saying that the entire team has already arrived in New York. They flew first class and landed even earlier than us."

Emi pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, on which a string of names and flight information was handwritten.

"They should be waiting in another terminal at the airport now."

"After the plane stops, you will directly lead the team away," Satsuki said. "Ann Arbor, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, and Atlanta which you added later—you can arrange the itinerary yourself."

"Mm..."

Emi refolded the piece of paper and put it away.

Then she stopped talking.

Satsuki had been looking at the scenery outside the window, and feeling a bit unaccustomed to the chatty Emi suddenly falling silent, she turned her head to look at her.

Emi was staring at her two hands on her knees, her lips pursed.

The eyes behind the round-framed glasses blinked twice, then blinked twice again.

"What’s wrong?"

Satsuki found it a bit strange.

Emi didn’t get motion sickness either; could it be that she suffered from culture shock right after landing?

"It’s nothing."

Satsuki didn’t press further.

After a few seconds, Emi spoke up herself.

"Just... a bit nervous."

"What’s the matter?"

"Those people we’re going to meet."

Emi’s voice was much lighter than before.

"When Mr. Najafi was making micromachined probes, I was still reading his published papers. Mr. Kawakami’s motion control model—I only finished learning it from ATR’s report last year. The head of that laboratory in Ann Arbor... I didn’t even dare to send him an email."

She raised her head.

"Before in Tokyo, everyone in the laboratory was our own people, and if we couldn’t make it work, at most we would go back and revise the plan. But this time I’m representing Saionji to go out and talk about cooperation, what if someone asks me a question and I can’t answer..."

"Do you think you won’t be able to answer?"

"It’s not a feeling, it’s really possible."

Emi was very honest.

"I understand the research direction of each of them, but understanding and mastery are too far apart."

"I can understand the principle of the processing technology Najafi does, but if you ask me to explain why that substrate material was chosen, I can only say ’it’s written in the paper.’"

After listening, Satsuki didn’t rush to answer.

So this girl was nervous because the authors of the papers she used to chase after were now stepping off the paper one by one, and furthermore had to listen to her arrangements.

She probably hadn’t truly realized just how strong she had become now.

Three years ago when she first entered WIDE, she was just a high school student who hadn’t even gone to college.

But now she could trace all the way from networks and chips to neural interfaces, thoroughly understand a completely unfamiliar field in a little over a year, and drag a group of experts who had each researched for a decade or two into the same project to push it forward.

Put anywhere, this learning speed was already ridiculously exaggerated.

Satsuki often doubted whether being a genius to this extent was even scientific. Could Emi be her reborn golden finger?

But when it was truly her turn to stand in front of these people and make decisions for Saionji as the person in charge, she instead began to doubt whether she was qualified enough.

When all is said and done, what Emi lacked now was no longer ability.

It was just that she wasn’t used to it yet—from now on, many of the people she faced might have longer resumes than her and be older than her, but the number of people who ultimately needed to look up and wait for her to make decisions would only increase.

For this kind of thing, someone had to give her a push first.

The plane was passing through the final taxiway, and the distant apron could already be seen outside the window.

"Emi."

"Hmm?"

"Why do you think you have to understand more than them?"

Emi was stunned for a moment.

"But I’m the person in charge."

"Does the person in charge have to be better than everyone else in every field?"

Satsuki smiled.

"Then why is Mr. Najafi still coming to Odaiba?"

Emi opened her mouth.

"Because... we need his micromachining experience."

"And Mr. Kawakami?"

"Motion control and decoding."

"And the others?"

Emi quickly understood her meaning.

Satsuki continued:

"It was never possible for you alone to make everything the best."

"Some people have been making electrodes for over a decade, and some have studied the motor cortex longer than your age. If you could still be stronger than them in what they are best at, then I would instead have to doubt whether the research funding given to them all these years was wasted."

Emi couldn’t help smiling a little.

"But..."

"But they also have things you don’t have."

Satsuki looked at her.

"Mr. Najafi knows micromachining very well, but he won’t consider the decoding model for you."

"Mr. Kawakami can explain motion control very clearly, but he won’t simultaneously manage how many days the electrodes can still work stably after implantation."

"How these things are connected together in the end, and how the piece each of them is responsible for will affect what comes next—"

Satsuki raised her hand and gently tapped Emi’s forehead.

"This is what you have been doing all along."

Emi quieted down.

"You don’t need to snatch every technical question to answer when you meet."

"If the other party asks about micromachining, let the person who actually does micromachining answer. If they ask about materials, let the person who does materials answer."

"If you don’t understand, ask."

"If you feel something is wrong, ask directly too."

"What you really need to do is know whether what they say can ultimately be put into your project."

Satsuki leaned back.

"And haven’t you always done this very well?"

Emi didn’t speak.

"That laboratory in Odaiba went from an empty room to what it is now, and the direction was determined by you bit by bit."

"Sixty-four-channel online decoding, 140 milliseconds of latency, fifty-three days of long-term implantation."

"Those people did enter their respective fields many years earlier than you."

Satsuki looked at her.

"But now, the things they made have already been put into the same project by you."

"So don’t always think about whether you’re qualified to stand in front of them."

"You’ve already been standing there for a long time."

Emi’s lips moved, as if she wanted to say something, but swallowed it back down.

After a while, she spoke in a low voice: "Then I’ll try."

"Not try," Satsuki corrected her. "Do."

Emi looked at her for two seconds.

"Mm."

The strength of her nod this time was much greater than before.

Mm mm, perfectly teachable.

Satsuki looked on and nodded with gratification.

Emi just lacked a bit of that ’arrogance’ of a genius right now; if she were Emi, she would even dare to retort against herself.

At this time, the taxiway outside the window came to an end.

The plane began to turn left, its speed had dropped very low, and movement inside the cabin was almost imperceptible.

Emi brought her face close to the porthole, wanting to see the situation on the apron.

Then her movements stopped.

"Satsuki-chan."

"Hmm?"

"Outside..."

Emi’s voice sounded a bit strange.

Satsuki glanced out from the porthole on the other side.

This aircraft parking area had been completely isolated.

Not to mention other passenger planes, even the ground service tractors and baggage handling equipment usually parked around large aprons were hardly seen in numbers.

Replaced by a large expanse of open ground—and densely packed vehicles arranged across the open ground.

The row closest to the scheduled parking spot was all printed with Saionji’s family crest, and Satsuki recognized at a glance that it was Dojima Gen’s motorcade.

Three bulletproof modified Toyota Centuries formed a column, interspersed with two dark Chevys whose bodies were a section higher than the ordinary version.

A little farther away, there were also four unmarked black vans with their side sliding doors half open, inside which large equipment boxes and folding stretchers could be faintly seen. Those were medical support vehicles.

Further out—

Emi leaned against the porthole, her eyes wide open.

The peripheral vehicles obviously did not belong to Saionji. A long row of dark Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Caprices was lined up, without police lights on their roofs, but federal agency permits could be faintly seen on the inside of their windshields.

A few bulkier armored SUVs were parked at the end of the motorcade, and the people next to them were wearing dark combat uniforms, with equipment hanging on them that was clearly not ordinary pistols.

Some people were holding rifles, and others were leading dogs.

Temporary roadblocks were erected at the entrance of the apron, and two vehicles with obvious law enforcement paint jobs were parked horizontally there to block the passage. Further away, below the airport’s control tower, there seemed to be several more patrol cars than normal.

"This..."

Emi turned her head to look at Satsuki, her expression unclear whether it was surprise or nervousness.

"Isn’t this too many people?"

Satsuki didn’t have any special reaction. She withdrew her gaze from the porthole and unhurriedly organized the materials beside her seat.

"The innermost circle is our people," she pointed and said. "They arrived last week; routes, accommodations, vehicles, and backup communication lines have all been rechecked."

"What about those outside?"

"Handled by the U.S. Federal side," Satsuki said. "And local law enforcement coordination in New York."

Emi glanced out the window again.

From her angle, she could count at least twenty-some vehicles, and the security personnel standing everywhere added up to at least a hundred people.

"Was it like this when you came to the U.S. last time?"

"Well... there wasn’t this kind of array last time," Satsuki admitted. "It’s just that the situation is special this time—someone already took a shot at me once, and the U.S. side found out it was even related to their own people. If anything else happens to me in New York..."

She didn’t finish the second half of the sentence, only gently flicked the newspaper on the table.

"Didn’t you read those reports just now."

"Salomon is waiting for me to come, and at least half of Wall Street is eyeing this matter. The government side, the Carlyle side, the Texas side, the various American capitals cooperating with us, and the clients who are considering whether to continue doing business with Salomon... Everyone has a common bottom line."

"What bottom line?"

"I absolutely cannot die in New York."

Emi swallowed nervously with a sympathetic heart, but instead became less worried.

Whatever else she didn’t care about, as long as her Satsuki-chan definitely couldn’t get into trouble—

"If I am attacked within U.S. territory, this matter will turn from business news into a diplomatic incident."

"Salomon will lose its remaining market confidence, and all American capitals doing business with Saionji will suffer losses. Those in Congress who have been eyeing US-Japan economic and trade relations will have even more reason to make trouble."

Satsuki tilted her head slightly.

"So even if there is really someone inside the U.S. who wants to make a move against me—do you think the White House would allow it? Would Gutfreund allow it? Would Carlyle allow it?"

Emi was silent for a few seconds.

She took another look at the vehicles and personnel outside the window.

Dojima Gen’s subordinates standing in the inner circle were checking something with the U.S. personnel, both sides holding folders and communicators respectively.

The outer federal security personnel were scattered all over the apron, rifle muzzles pointing down, relaxed in posture but precise in position, dividing the whole area into clear layers.

"It feels... almost like the president," Emi whispered.

Hearing these words, Satsuki finally smiled a little.

"A real presidential outing is much more exaggerated than this. Air Force One, advanced team, snipers, electronic jamming vehicles, backup medical helicopters, and several fake routes."

"My side is just because the situation is special, and the U.S. side doesn’t want problems to happen right under their noses."

Although she said that, looking at that array outside the window, Emi felt somewhat more grounded in her heart.

At least more grounded than when she was flipping through the newspaper just now.

The plane fine-tuned its direction for the last time, aimed at the parking spot, and began its final braking.

The speed dropped to almost a walking pace, and the scenery outside the window finally stopped completely.

The low hum of the engines gradually diminished.

The cabin crew walked over from the front and confirmed to Satsuki that they could prepare to disembark.

Satsuki stood up.

Today she was wearing a dark gray thin woolen coat with a white shirt inside. Her hair was coiled up at the back of her head, revealing her full facial contour.

Emi also stood up, reaching for the luggage compartment above her seat.

"Don’t take that yet."

Satsuki raised her hand to stop her.

Emi turned her head, actually looking a bit aggrieved.

"My toolkit..."

"I know," Satsuki said somewhat helplessly. "There might be cooperative media taking photos downstairs later, you can’t just carry your toolkit out yourself right after getting off the plane."

Emi lowered her head and thought about it, which seemed to make sense.

"Then tell them to be careful, there are things inside that can’t be dropped."

"Got it."

Satsuki fastened the luggage compartment back up for her.

Only then did Emi withdraw her hand and instead straightened her collar.

Today she was wearing a dark blue jacket, her round-framed glasses were wiped very clean, and the marks on her short hair pressed against the back of the chair earlier were quickly smoothed out by her fingers.

Satsuki glanced at her.

"After we go down later, we will separate, and there will be a car to take you to rendezvous with Kawakami and the others."

"Mm."

"On the research team’s side, you have the final say."

"Mm."

"Call if you encounter something you’re not sure about."

"Got it."

Satsuki nodded.

"Then I’ll leave first."

"Wait a minute."

Emi called out to stop her.

Satsuki turned her head back.

Emi stood there, her mouth opening, as if she had originally prepared to say something solemn.

But looking at Satsuki’s ordinary expression, those words seemed to become redundant again.

"... Stay safe."

In the end, only these four words remained.

Satsuki smiled.

"You too."

The sound of hydraulic devices releasing came from ahead.

The cabin door locking mechanism was released.

A gap appeared at the position of the sealing strip, and then rapidly expanded.

The two walked one after the other into late September in New York.