THE STORY · EPISODE 19
It was not the files that had disappeared.
The same names remained in the list. Their contents appeared when opened. Yet the administrator was pointing to records of outgoing transfers.
“Being here and not having been sent somewhere else are different things.”
Mana looked at the screen.
She had imagined something being taken meant it vanished from the desk. Yuki’s draft, too, could have gone elsewhere while still remaining here.
An unfamiliar USB device was connected beside the terminal.
A black shadow stretched from that narrow entrance into the passage. Something like a bag swelled beside it, but they could see neither its inside nor the shape of what it carried.
“If we unplug it, it’ll stop, won’t it?”
Mana began to reach out as she spoke.
The doctor called the owner and the administrator. They needed to preserve the current state and disconnect the affected equipment according to procedure. This was not a time for everyone to try plugging and unplugging things without checking what was running.
“Please don’t open an unknown device on another PC to investigate it, either.”
At the administrator’s words, Bug moved the spare terminal away from the desk.
“So not just, try it and find out.”
“We choose where to investigate, too.”
Mana returned her hand to her own notebook.
Episode 19, Illustration 1 | Waiting for staff to block and preserve without touching
The connection records included work done at night.
Approved media had been used to restore the earlier system outage. That row and the newly discovered unknown device’s row showed similar times.
“Maybe the recovery work carried it out.”
Someone said from the back of the line.
The worker’s face stiffened. Perhaps it felt as though even their help the previous night was being treated with suspicion.
Mana did not first decide who looked suspicious.
“We’re checking the separate tasks that happened that night. The record of the approved work is here.”
Logrin showed the row the staff had compared. The identifiers of the approved media and the unknown media differed. The staff also investigated the transfer amounts and classifications of the contents within the necessary scope.
A large amount alone did not make something wrong. Whose work was it for, what was its purpose, and what was permitted? Those needed to match.
Sapo cleared the desk’s edge and placed the two comparison sheets side by side. After checking the originals’ storage location with the staff, Shadowlog held his record board.
A Defense question appeared in the encyclopedia.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 19-D1Information can leave while originals remainWhat is data exfiltration?Open illustration & choices
Interactive answer checks and saved progress load with JavaScript. You can continue reading without answering.
“C. Taking information to an unauthorized destination. We can’t judge it only by whether the original remains.”
The shield’s light pinned the thin thread leading to the bag.
Mana made a brief note of how she had nearly been reassured by the surviving files.
Disappearing was not the only form of loss.
The bag still tried to swell.
Mana wanted to chase the shadow outside. If what had been taken could be recovered, shouldn’t she run now?
But the administrator was isolating the affected terminal and stopping the route out. If Mana pulled something out in front of them, she might change the surviving evidence or the state they were working with.
Securidon tugged lightly at her sleeve.
“Where are we protecting, don?”
He was watching the bag, too. It was not that he did not want to chase it. He was waiting for Mana’s instruction.
“Where things are still being handed over now. We won’t let it carry any more.”
Saying it aloud brought the next task into view.
“Securidon, hold this boundary while the staff disconnect it. Linklar, mark the area we must stay out of!”
Yuki changed the route for people, and Bug cleared the work area. The staff confirmed the blocking state, removed the media by the prescribed method, and preserved it. The logs and information about the connected state were retained, too.
Sneakam stood at the corridor corner, watching the place Mana had asked him to guard so others would not touch the terminal.
Even during the time it took to stop the carrying shadow, the companions had work to do.
“Block the device and preserve the evidence.”
As the doctor read, Mana watched the staff’s hands.
“Stop the affected device’s activity and preserve the evidence. Don’t erase the traces in the rush to stop it.”
An Attack question lit up in the encyclopedia.
OPTIONAL QUESTION · 19-A1Unknown media and an ongoing transferAn unknown USB device and an ongoing transfer are suspected. What should you do with the staff?Open illustration & choices
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“A. Confirm the target with the staff, then block and isolate it. Preserve the media and records, and investigate whether the work was approved and what information was affected.”
Mana imagined the person beyond the bag. She could see neither their name nor their face from here. Their invisibility did not make the information already sent out return automatically.
“Even if we stop the shadow here, we still have to check what might have been carried away, don’t we?”
The doctor nodded.
“Yes. The staff will also make the necessary reports.”
Rather than making Mana feel reassured, that gave her the next part of the work to hold. She was not choosing a technique that returned everything. She was connecting what they could do now to what remained.
“Logrin, check the remaining routes. Shadowlog, help compare the copies. Securidon, push back from the boundary we’ve verified!”
The threads leading to the black bag broke one by one.
The shadow raised the legitimate worker’s nameplate. But the approval record did not match the affected media. Borrowing a name did not make it the same work.
The last thread broke, and the shadow fell at their feet. There was nothing left with which to swell the bag.
The Securies’ light loosened its black surface.
Long white ears appeared. A small rabbit companion with black markings around his eyes held a brown DATA bag to his chest and looked at Mana.
“May I take this?”
Mana answered without taking his bag away.
“After checking its owner, its recipient, and what’s needed.”
He set the bag on the floor.
“Grabbit. I’ll ask before carrying things.”
COL-015 — Grabbit. The nineteenth name lit up. Mana did not treat his bag as a substitute for all the data that had gone out.
As they prepared to leave, the worker spoke to Mana.
“I’m glad you checked yesterday’s work.”
“There are still things being investigated.”
Mana paused, then continued.
“But I’m glad we didn’t make different records into the same one.”
The worker nodded. They were neither hiding suspicious details nor choosing one person to suspect. They had needed words that kept the targets separate.
On the way home, Grabbit reached toward a fallen sheet of paper.
“What about this?”
Mana stopped, too. They did not know whose it was. Before reading it, they checked where it should be handed in.
They took the paper to the town’s lost-property counter. Handing it in and returning it to its owner were still different things.
Episode 19, Illustration 2 | Taking a found paper to lost property without reading it
“Your bag is light.”
At Yuki’s words, Grabbit opened his mouth a little.
“I don’t have to put everything in it.”
Before they reached the house, the doctor’s terminal chimed repeatedly.
An unknown transfer, a guidance display fault, a request to confirm tomorrow’s work. The different notices all carried the same yellow triangle.
Each claimed to be the most urgent.
Mana looked from her encyclopedia to the doctor’s terminal. Even the hands protecting nineteen names could not reach toward everything at once.
END OF EPISODE 19