"Ugh, that stupid numbers station is back on again," Emiko complained, as a burst of static and then a voice reading out numbers cut in on the radio over the local mellow music station. "Sayaka, go fix that, would you?"
The blue-haired waitress, who had been unfortunate enough to have been named after her parents' favourite manga character, sighed and went to fiddle with the radio again, being apparently the only one on shift who could reliably get their music back.
"This is getting really annoying," Emiko grumbled. "Who the hell hijacks the radio just to broadcast a bunch of numbers?"
Makoto considered getting into the history of numbers stations, the reasons why people shouldn't try and decipher what was probably a code used by either the government or a subversive group, and the likelihood that the people broadcasting actually wanted the five square blocks they were in to hear them in that order, then discarded it all for something simpler.
"They're probably not even aware you can hear them," he said, settling on something safer. "This sounds like a transmission that was supposed to be sent to a specific location, but is inadvertently being broadcast on public radio channels by mistake." Close enough to the truth, he supposed, while omitting anything potentially dangerous.
"So what, some stupid kid has a new CB radio and is doing his math homework out loud from it?" Sayaka called as the radio switched back to smooth jazz.
He shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe?"
"You know something," Emiko accused.
He paused in the middle of lifting his glass up (something called a 'cosmo,' which he had never tried before but which was delicious) and made a 'so-so' motion with his free hand. "I have guesses." Maybe some of them were a little more educated than any other theory around, but he didn't need to say that.
"Do your 'guesses' potentially lead anywhere that could get whoever-it-is to stop sending this damn signal here?" she demanded, leaning over the counter in an apparent attempt to intimidate him. It was as if she had temporarily forgotten that, her height advantage over him or no, he was a ninja and she was not.
Makoto heaved a sigh. "I suppose." He swished his near-empty glass. "Can I get another one of these when I get back, then?"
She eyed him tolerantly. "I don't see why not."
~
Locking onto a radio signal without specialized equipment was quite annoying. The phoenix didn't have any ideas for how to do it, either, so he was basically on his own.
Firstly, since the signal was fuzzy, he simply tuned his headset until he found the faint signal--which didn't get stronger no matter what frequency he locked onto, from where he was--and then started walking in various directions until it became clearer. Then he continued on that direction, out of the city and into the desert.
And from there...he wasn't sure. If he'd had some proficiency with sound element jutsu, he might have been able to improvise something, but...
Still no ideas, huh?
I confess to understanding very little about technology, the phoenix replied. This is as much of a mystery to me as to you. perhaps more of one.
Grand.
But then...it was technology. And what were radio waves, really? If he recalled correctly from his reading, they were electromagnetic waves sent out at a specific frequency. In other words, the element they were most closely related to wasn't sound--it was lightning. (Well, maybe it was magnetic, actually, but he could probably work with lightning here.)
They were quite weak, obviously, and normally not harmful to people even at close proximity to a tower. But they were perceptible...which meant that he ought to be able to trace them back to their source. He knew people could triangulate radio waves with special equipment, but he had neither the equipment nor the third point of a triangle to work with.
Therefore, he had to attempt to sense very weak, non-chakra-based, ambient electromagnetic waves. So at least he knew what he was looking for. And, well, he had managed to sense the source of the disturbances back during the storm god mission, so long ago in this same desert...
Makoto closed his eyes, reaching out with his chakra sense. What some people would do to detect a faint signature was to flood their senses with their own chakra in an attempt to brute force it. This worked...all right, for signatures of living things, and things you only had faint traces on. But for trying to find a specific type of energy not attached to a living thing, a lighter touch was required. Instead, he spread out barely more than the required chakra to power it, still coming in under the threshold of what most would need to use, and let it search the area quietly as it seeped out of him.
It was difficult to lock onto a 'trail' in this case, since there wasn't so much a trail as a focal point, given that the numbers signal was being broadcast in all directions. However, he could gradually trace the direction in which the signal became stronger in this way, with his senses so spread out as they were. Gradually he homed in on a specific area, then a specific locale.
It was a single radio tower, no fencing and no people, with a blinking red light at the top.
He came out of his trance and stretched to find the phoenix hovering above him, casting its silvery light around and keeping an eye out. He sent a wordless sensation of thanks at it, before starting the trek in the direction the radio tower was in. He had been zoned out for quite some time, by the sounds of it.
He flipped his headset back on on the way there, for no real reason.
"48. 56. 71. 12. 15." A pause, and a sound of chimes. "16. 27. 34. 5..."
Sure enough, when he reached the tower it continued on, undisturbed, and there were no people there.
"Perhaps it is merely a remote relay?" the phoenix suggested.
"Maybe..." he said slowly. "But...with no fence?"
He walked around it, looking for something that would indicate where the signal was coming from. It could be a relay tower, yes. Especially since he could see no recording or broadcasting equipment other than this. Except...
Around the other side of the tower, behind a slight rise of rocks, were doors that looked like they went to a storm cellar. He exchanged a silent look with the phoenix. Whatever was down there was probably whatever was broadcasting. Moreover, it looked old. Yet this station had only been broadcasting and reaching the nearby town for several weeks...although the tower itself looked new...
"Well then," he said, flipping out his lockpicks to have a go at opening the padlock holding the doors shut. "Let's see what's down there."
The blue-haired waitress, who had been unfortunate enough to have been named after her parents' favourite manga character, sighed and went to fiddle with the radio again, being apparently the only one on shift who could reliably get their music back.
"This is getting really annoying," Emiko grumbled. "Who the hell hijacks the radio just to broadcast a bunch of numbers?"
Makoto considered getting into the history of numbers stations, the reasons why people shouldn't try and decipher what was probably a code used by either the government or a subversive group, and the likelihood that the people broadcasting actually wanted the five square blocks they were in to hear them in that order, then discarded it all for something simpler.
"They're probably not even aware you can hear them," he said, settling on something safer. "This sounds like a transmission that was supposed to be sent to a specific location, but is inadvertently being broadcast on public radio channels by mistake." Close enough to the truth, he supposed, while omitting anything potentially dangerous.
"So what, some stupid kid has a new CB radio and is doing his math homework out loud from it?" Sayaka called as the radio switched back to smooth jazz.
He shrugged noncommittally. "Maybe?"
"You know something," Emiko accused.
He paused in the middle of lifting his glass up (something called a 'cosmo,' which he had never tried before but which was delicious) and made a 'so-so' motion with his free hand. "I have guesses." Maybe some of them were a little more educated than any other theory around, but he didn't need to say that.
"Do your 'guesses' potentially lead anywhere that could get whoever-it-is to stop sending this damn signal here?" she demanded, leaning over the counter in an apparent attempt to intimidate him. It was as if she had temporarily forgotten that, her height advantage over him or no, he was a ninja and she was not.
Makoto heaved a sigh. "I suppose." He swished his near-empty glass. "Can I get another one of these when I get back, then?"
She eyed him tolerantly. "I don't see why not."
~
Locking onto a radio signal without specialized equipment was quite annoying. The phoenix didn't have any ideas for how to do it, either, so he was basically on his own.
Firstly, since the signal was fuzzy, he simply tuned his headset until he found the faint signal--which didn't get stronger no matter what frequency he locked onto, from where he was--and then started walking in various directions until it became clearer. Then he continued on that direction, out of the city and into the desert.
And from there...he wasn't sure. If he'd had some proficiency with sound element jutsu, he might have been able to improvise something, but...
Still no ideas, huh?
I confess to understanding very little about technology, the phoenix replied. This is as much of a mystery to me as to you. perhaps more of one.
Grand.
But then...it was technology. And what were radio waves, really? If he recalled correctly from his reading, they were electromagnetic waves sent out at a specific frequency. In other words, the element they were most closely related to wasn't sound--it was lightning. (Well, maybe it was magnetic, actually, but he could probably work with lightning here.)
They were quite weak, obviously, and normally not harmful to people even at close proximity to a tower. But they were perceptible...which meant that he ought to be able to trace them back to their source. He knew people could triangulate radio waves with special equipment, but he had neither the equipment nor the third point of a triangle to work with.
Therefore, he had to attempt to sense very weak, non-chakra-based, ambient electromagnetic waves. So at least he knew what he was looking for. And, well, he had managed to sense the source of the disturbances back during the storm god mission, so long ago in this same desert...
Makoto closed his eyes, reaching out with his chakra sense. What some people would do to detect a faint signature was to flood their senses with their own chakra in an attempt to brute force it. This worked...all right, for signatures of living things, and things you only had faint traces on. But for trying to find a specific type of energy not attached to a living thing, a lighter touch was required. Instead, he spread out barely more than the required chakra to power it, still coming in under the threshold of what most would need to use, and let it search the area quietly as it seeped out of him.
It was difficult to lock onto a 'trail' in this case, since there wasn't so much a trail as a focal point, given that the numbers signal was being broadcast in all directions. However, he could gradually trace the direction in which the signal became stronger in this way, with his senses so spread out as they were. Gradually he homed in on a specific area, then a specific locale.
It was a single radio tower, no fencing and no people, with a blinking red light at the top.
He came out of his trance and stretched to find the phoenix hovering above him, casting its silvery light around and keeping an eye out. He sent a wordless sensation of thanks at it, before starting the trek in the direction the radio tower was in. He had been zoned out for quite some time, by the sounds of it.
He flipped his headset back on on the way there, for no real reason.
"48. 56. 71. 12. 15." A pause, and a sound of chimes. "16. 27. 34. 5..."
Sure enough, when he reached the tower it continued on, undisturbed, and there were no people there.
"Perhaps it is merely a remote relay?" the phoenix suggested.
"Maybe..." he said slowly. "But...with no fence?"
He walked around it, looking for something that would indicate where the signal was coming from. It could be a relay tower, yes. Especially since he could see no recording or broadcasting equipment other than this. Except...
Around the other side of the tower, behind a slight rise of rocks, were doors that looked like they went to a storm cellar. He exchanged a silent look with the phoenix. Whatever was down there was probably whatever was broadcasting. Moreover, it looked old. Yet this station had only been broadcasting and reaching the nearby town for several weeks...although the tower itself looked new...
"Well then," he said, flipping out his lockpicks to have a go at opening the padlock holding the doors shut. "Let's see what's down there."