“So, what’s everyone want to do next?” Jane asked once everyone had finished their snacks.

  “Rollercoaster!” Eddie and Jennifer yelled.

  “Teacups!” Issi called at the same time.

  “Rides it is,” Alan declared. “Thankfully both of those are in the same area.”

  “And where exactly is that?” I asked.

  Alan looked at me for several seconds, then scoffed. “Really? You don’t have any idea of where we need to go? None at all?”

  I glanced up at the massive set of rails looming over the park, peeking over the surrounding rides and attractions. It was so long that it had several trains going around it at once, the screams of the riders echoing around the park.

  “I have some idea, but that thing runs pretty much the entire length of the park. I have no idea where it starts!” I snapped. I knew Alan didn’t deserve that, not after that little bit of snark. It’s just that dealing with the security guard had put me on edge.

  “That’s enough, you two,” Jane sighed. She reached into the bag at her side and pulled out a stack of pamphlets and paraphernalia, sorted through them, then passed me one. I pulled it open, expecting it to be a page or two wide, only to find it expanded into a large map of the park. It was cartoony, and the proportions were exaggerated, but it was accurate enough to get a general idea of the layout. Mostly.

  “So… to Actionland?” I asked, twisting the map around, trying to decipher the map.

  “No! How did you get that idea?” Jane asked. She leaned down and pointed at a section just left of the main gates. “We’re going to Playland.”

  “Right…” My eyes flicked between the map and the legend at the bottom left of the map, the legend made up of dozens of different, nearly identical icons. “How are you supposed to read this when you’re in a hurry?”

  “You’re not. They have an app that you can download that contains a built-in map and searchable directory. It’s far more convenient,” Jane replied.

  “Then what’s the point of this?” I asked, waving the map around.

  Jane plucked the map out of my hands and neatly folded it up again. “They sold them at the parade as souvenirs. The app deactivates once you leave the park, and I wanted something to remind us of the day.”

  “Fair enough,” I replied.

  Once she finished putting the map away, Jane took the lead, slowly leading the family across the park to where the rides were located. The park wasn’t that busy, but people were constantly bouncing back and forth between the different games and attractions along the path, cutting through our group. After the first time that happened, I dropped back and grabbed Eddie and Issi’s hands. I’m sure there was no way they would have been separated from the group, not with all the bears and foxes watching them, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

  Although the crowds didn’t thin out when we reached the ride area, they seemed to calm down. There were seven or eight smaller rides, including the teacups and the bumper cars, all of which were overshadowed by the main attraction. The roller coaster.

  While most of the lines for the smaller rides didn’t look that bad, the queue for the roller coaster already had several hundred people in it.

  “Are you sure you guys want to ride that?” I asked.

  “Of course! It’s exciting!” Jennifer exclaimed. Eddie nodded excitedly in agreement.

  I looked over at Jane and Alan. “So… Don’t suppose either of you want to volunteer to escort the kids on that thing, do you?”

  “Wait? You don’t want to give it a try?” Alan asked, surprised.

  “Of course not! Sitting around for half an hour or more to go up and down a track is not my idea of a good time,” I huffed. “I can’t imagine it’s that exciting either, not after everything that I’ve been through the last year.”

  “Your loss,” Alan muttered. “Jane, are you planning on coming with us or staying with Evelyn?”

  Jane bit her lip. “Are you sure you don’t want to come? You may never get a chance to ride a roller coaster again.”

  “Absolutely, someone needs to stay with Issi while she goes on…” I glanced down at the tot, trying to remember what she’d said earlier.

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  “The teacups!” she cheered.

  “The teacups,” I repeated. “You go have fun. Once you’re done, we’ll spend the rest of the day playing games and going on the less intense rides as a family.”

  “We could do that now… We’ve already spent most of the day split up,” Jane muttered.

  “But… The roller coaster…” Eddie whined.

  “There’s still plenty of time left in the day, and like you said, you may never have a chance to ride a roller coaster again. Have fun, and we’ll meet up with you after,” I said.

  Jane glanced at the roller coaster and then back at me. It was obvious that she was caught between her need to mother and her desire to ride.

  I made a little shooing motion. “Go! The longer you take to get on the coaster, the less time we’ll have for family time after. Issi and I will be fine while you’re gone.”

  “I’ll take care of Evelyn!” the little girl declared, causing Jane to break out into a smile.

  “Fine, we’re going. I’ll send you a message when we’re done. Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Jane finally agreed.

  “Of course, we’ll have Bob with us,” I replied.

  The big bear stood up straight and pouted. “Me? Why me? I wanted to go too!”

  “Because I don’t think you’d fit on the train,” I told him. “Besides, you wouldn’t want to disappoint Issi, would you?”

  “Come with us, Bob. I’ll give you hugs!” Issi declared, throwing her arms around his leg.

  The bear nodded. “You make a convincing argument.”

  When we separated from the family, Issi, Bob, and I immediately went towards the teacups. The line was extremely short, almost nonexistent. I briefly wondered why they’d keep such an unpopular ride around, until I saw the ‘cups’.

  Each car was unique, sculpted like a variety of consumer products, and plastered with advertisements. It was like one giant corporate billboard. Issi didn’t care. She wanted to ride all the same.

  As we stepped into line, I noticed a half a dozen people in high-end suits strolled through the entrance. In a crowd full of people wearing Hawaiian shirts and shorts, they stood out like a sore thumb. Not only were they extremely overdressed, but half of them had high-end cybernetics.

  While I was inspecting the group, I noticed the slim Asian man in the middle of their group look down at some sort of device, then point almost directly at me. The group began to move.

  I stood up straight and glanced over at Issi. I didn’t know what was going on or who these people were, but I really didn’t want her to get caught up in anything.

  “Issi, how about you take this first ride with Bob,” I said. “He’s scared of new experiences, and I don’t think all three of us would fit in a single car.”

  Bob looked at me, confused. “No, I…”

  I immediately locked eyes with the bear, interrupting him, then glanced at the approaching group. The big bear turned, looked at them, back at me, then back at them again. Only then did he seem to get it.

  “Oh! Right! I need you to keep me safe!” Bob declared. “It’s totally not to get you out of the way in case something happens or anything.”

  My eye twitched as I stared at the bear. Thankfully Issi didn’t seem to pick up on any of his ‘subtle’ clues.

  “It’s okay, there’s nothing to worry about,” the child chirped, grabbing Bob’s hand and dragging him onto the loading platform. “And if there was, I’d protect you!”

  I smiled and waved to the pair as the ride rotated away. As soon as they disappeared from my sight, I immediately turned and ducked under the ropes to confront the group, a scowl forming on my face.

  “Can I help you?” I growled.

  The closest man flinched, his hand jumping towards a suspicious bulge in his jacket, before the Asian man spoke up. “None of that! Do you want to lose that arm? We came to prevent an incident, not make things worse.”

  The bodyguard immediately dropped his hand and backed away, apologizing in a language I didn’t recognize.

  “What’s all this?” I asked suspiciously.

  The well-dressed Asian man adjusted his glasses, then stepped past his bodyguards and took up a position a few feet away from me.

  “Ms. Claire, I’m Suzuki Haruto, the local regional coordinator for Nimbletainment,” he said.

  “Nice to meet you,” I replied, eyeing up his group suspiciously. “What can I do for you today?”

  “It’s not what you can do for us; it’s what we can do for you,” Haruto replied in a respectful tone. “I was informed that one of our security guards confronted you earlier, and I wanted to personally apologize for allowing the situation to happen. Our staff should know better.”

  “Wait, you came here to apologize to me?” I asked, surprised. “You didn’t need to do that. It was my fault that he didn’t recognize me. My AI kept my status as a samurai from being logged in the system, so I could enjoy a casual day with my family. He didn’t know.”

  “With all due respect, Ms. Claire, all our security staff have been trained to identify all Class II samurai in the city and Class III samurai in the Northwest. We pride ourselves in treating samurai with respect, and our security personnel are supposed to give samurai full access to our public facilities,” Haruto explained.

  “That’s… very accommodating of you,” I said. “Why?”

  “Because Nimbletainment believes it’s better to cooperate with samurai and earn goodwill than stand in their way and earn ire,” Haruto said.

  “Smart,” I muttered. “That doesn’t explain why you and your security team came out here to find me.”

  “Yes, that…” Haruto reached up and adjusted his tie. “We are very aware of your previous history with other corporations, along with your general distrust of our motivations, so I came out here in person to apologize to you. This situation never should have happened. You have our deepest apologies.”

  Haruto and his entire team bowed low. I already knew that a lot of people were looking at us, wondering what was going on; this would only make things worse.

  “Don’t do that,” I snapped. “I didn’t think the whole thing was a big deal, just another person trying to throw their power around. I didn’t expect or need a personal apology. You could have just called.”

  “A phone call is impersonal and does not show any sincerity,” Haruto explained. “Besides, we’ve found that many samurai screen their phone calls.”

  I smirked. “Can you blame us? Don’t you do the same?”

  “No, no, I cannot,” the man replied, with a small smile. “I’m sorry this situation occurred, but I’m glad you don’t harbor any hard feelings.”

  Haruto reached into his jacket, pulled out a card, and handed it to me. “If you ever need to contact Nimbletainment, please use this number. It’ll connect you with a senior official with enough authority to authorize access to our facilities or provide you with assistance.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll ever need that,” I said.

  “You never know… It’s better to have a tentative friend than an enemy. I know it’s not much, but I’ve instructed the park staff to gather a few souvenirs for the family to memorialize the day. You can pick them up at the guest services building on the way out,” Haruto explained, gesturing back at the park’s entrance before turning to face me again. “It was nice meeting you, Ms. Claire.”

  “Likewise,” I replied with a casual nod.

  Haruto bowed one last time, then turned to leave, taking his security team with him. I just kind of stood there, staring at his back for a minute until I heard Issi’s voice. “Who was that?”

  “No one important,” I replied, pocketing the card. “How was the ride?”

  “It was great! We went around, and around, and around!” Issi boasted.

  “Do you want to go again?” I asked.

  The girl smiled. “Absolutely!”

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