Episode 10: Erosion

**"Infiltration -dive-"** *Transcription:* "Shinshoku -dive-" (Japanese: 侵触 -dive-) is the tenth episode of *Madlax*. It debuted on June 7, 2004 in Japan.

## Synopsis

Vanessa remembers a time when she was Margaret’s tutor, and the young girl asked her about right and wrong. She remembers saying, after a discussion about rights and wrongs, “Whether you are right or mistaken, one thing won’t change: the truth.” In the present, Vanessa searches through Bookwald Industries’ computer records and finds that everything has been accurately recorded and done in a legal way, so there is no proof of the exportation of weapons to the warring factions in Gazth-Sonika. The company’s write-ups are not wrong, but Vanessa feels the company actions are wrong. She is unaware that the computer is equipped with a hidden camera, and she is being monitored.

In his dark, gothic abode in Gazth-Sonika, Friday Monday speaks with Carossur Don. He tells Don that the man who tried to snipe him recently was an agent of the government, but his client remains unknown. Who put out a hit for Don? This question is never actually answered, but some viewers believe it was another agent of Enfant. Friday doesn't fully trust Don and might have been trying to get rid of him.

That evening, Vanessa visits her old friend Bagis. He tells her that she would need to hack into the Bookwald host computer in order to obtain proof that Bookwald and Enfant are involved with each other and that they are sending weapons to Gazth-Sonika. Bagis and Vanessa know enough to be afraid of Enfant, but they won’t let that stop them. Bagis says they can make things work if they use True Cluster, a super-computer made up of 2300 commercially built PCs. In terms of processing speed, it’s ranked fourth in the whole world. It belongs to Bagis himself, who had to sell all his patents to acquire sufficient funds. The accommodating Bagis agrees to hack into Bookwald Industries in exchange for Vanessa buying him dinner.

Meanwhile, Carossur Don investigates Vanessa, and seems impressed with her IT skills and the way she overwrote the records of herself staying at the Arliem Hotel. That day at the hotel, Don saw Margaret carrying the mysterious picture book that Friday Monday calls “The Secondary.” The masked man has his own similar book of Elies Characters called “The Firstary.” Don knows that Margaret was the client who asked Eric to look for another copy of her picture book. He also knows Margaret is connected to Vanessa, but the details remain unknown. Don decides to wait patiently for now.

From atop a city building, Naharu watches Don in his apartment. Her intentions are unclear. At the same time, Eleanor and Margaret are eating dinner at the Burton estate. Margaret says she’s worried about Vanessa, who seemed troubled by a news report concerning the war in Gazth-Sonika. That night, Margaret sees Leticia and the yellow-haired Poupee in her dreams. They sit on a bench in the ruins of a city, with a huge red moon overhead. Unknown to Margaret or Eleanor, Vanessa spends the evening with Bagis, preparing for their hack.

At first, the hacking seems to be going well. After some time, Bagis gains access to the host computer. Neither he nor Vanessa knows that their progress is being monitored by Friday Monday. He tracks their modules and stops their hack just when they are trying to download the 300 documents that could incriminate Bookwald Industries. Bagis has to admit defeat, having only taken a third of the documents. Now Bagis and Vanessa need to pull out. However, things go downhill quickly.

This fan can’t understand the techno-babble, but basically, at this rate, they aren’t going to be able to keep the few documents they stole, and Enfant will know their location. That’s how things look until Bagis manages to forcefully shut down the system and “save” them. Not only is their location safe, but they managed to steal the incriminating data and transfer it to another computer. The problem is that the data was actually sent to a random computer in Gazth-Sonika. Further, it’s impossible to recover it unless they had physical access to that particular computer. Bagis says he’s sorry it didn’t work out, but Vanessa thanks him for trying so hard.

Presumably a few days later, Vanessa leaves on a business trip to Gazth-Sonika. The areas of that country that are kept safe from the war are said to be like paradise, but of course Vanessa isn’t going there to have a nice tropical vacation. She wants to get a better understanding of how things stand in that country, and maybe find some way to stop Bookwald. When Bagis says there’s no need for her to go to such lengths for a foreign country that created its own war, but Vanessa insists that she has personal reasons for taking these risks.

Ironically, Vanessa and Madlax pass each by on the street. Neither of them knows who the other one is or how they will come to be connected.

## Preview

Episode 11

*"Changing the truth, not realizing the truth, grasping for the truth, running from the truth. All of it is useless."* – Laetitia