"Den, One here. We are going to the target house right now."
"Where the hell would Mitsuo Ando be now? One person says that he is collecting information from a house of a dead girl named Mai Takano but when we come there, we see shit. His schedule says that he's not at the hospital now, his other colleague, Miyashita says that he is dropped at Odawara station for going home. And he is not fucking there. The fuck, Craig?" -says one man in the front seat of a grey Toyota Corolla with a slight deep American Southern voice. The blend of colorful Tokyo's street light and brief darkness tones up the white skinned male.
"Dammit, Jonathan, if one of us knows, we don't have to track his cell phone, for fuck's sake. They should have kept him back for us." -say the driver who is wearing what is akin to a very thick safety glass. He has a light brown complex which is complemented by a scar on his lower left cheek. His necklace has a pendant of Globe, Anchor and Eagle.
The other, who is watching his target's location in the backseat, is wearing a checkered scarf on his neck which partially conceals his long beard, a habit of many infantrymen who has been in the hot zone of Afghanistan/Iraq. His left arm has a faded tattoo of his unit numbers.
All three men can pass as the Western tourists if they are now not wearing of what is essentially illegal equipments: each person carries military clothings with shoulder pockets and Velcro patches, decorated by a blood type patch on the left shoulder and a stylized eagle-in-a-shield patch on the right side, military gloves, knee pads, handheld transceiver (walkie-talkie), tactical vest with three magazines of rifle ammunition and two pistol ones, a black Mk18 Mod 0 (short barreled M4A1) carbine with a tactical holographic sight, laser module, flashlight and attached suppressors, backed by either a suppressed M9 Beretta or a M1911. The Motorola radio is full of chatters from others units from his companies, in which one can decipher from the chaos of words.
"Eagle Five here, we have secured Doctor Seki. Rendezvous now."
"This is Four. Doctor Miyashita is evac with his family."
"Three here. Transporting Junichiro Asakawa now but we have hard time keeping him restrained."
"Two here, we have secured the original report and tissue samples ."
"Copy that. Report to me when all of you has come back."
That last voice is from "Den", one of the members of the Board of Director of United Security (abbreviated as USEC), the second largest private security company in the U.S (after Academi), and acting commander of this operation. His real name is withheld as same as his employees for protection. There are a load of rumors about the act of Den. Some says that some top brass from either CIA or U.S Department of Defense has requested the company to execute this operation for ten millions or more to extract a group of doctors. Others says that this mission is related to the deaths of some Japanese people who have watched some random video tapes, and they all exhibit a virus-like tumors inside their left heart's arteries. The extremist and doom believers tell that this mission is against something akin to a supernatural entity, and that entity is bent on destroying everyone in this world. But, talks are always taken with a grain of salt. That's not an issue for the Eagle One, which is composed of three former members from U.S Marine Corps Force Recon, Delta Force and Army Ranger. They have been responsible for at least half of the company's successful special VIP close protection jobs, some of which are straight out from the gunfights. Nothing will come through their client, with a proper price.
"Den is updating something to us…almost done." -says Steele, the person in the backseat.
"What is that?"
"A sketched picture of a chick and artist's descriptions. Japanese, black hair, black eyes, typical shits like every Asian. Named Sadako Yamamura, some "psychic". He says to us that she must not make any contact with our target client or us, and somehow we are allowed to use deadly force against her, should she pull a video tape, pictures or even a book."
"Well...anything else about the girl?" -asks Craig, a hint of skeptics in his words. What warrants a girl to become such threat?
"What the...Den definitely has wicked sense of humor."
"The hell is it with his humor, Steele." -asks Jonathan. The bearded man keeps reading the next report file.
"She is declared missing in 1968, but someone has found her remains recently in a backwater countryside resort called Southern Hakone Pacific Land, west of Tokyo. That's impossible, this must be a mistake."
"Check for any I.D information and status from every known dead person. The latest ones first. Den must have been confused for an active ghoster, for real. We don't live in one of the George Romero's movies where the dead returns."-Craig turns to a different road in which has lesser number of vehicles and road lights
"Let's see... holy shit. Mai Takano's credit card is used for a subway ticket today at 9:30 P.M, not too far from the place that we have found."
Craig tenses his arm muscle on the steering wheel. Someone has the upper hand.
"Get the CCTVs and see who is that ghoster." -Jonathan continues.
The man immediately does his computer works, and once he zooms in the subject's face, the former Army Ranger is little unnerved in his gut. The uncanny face of the woman is really much 100% match, barring her dark sunglass which is intentionally trying the best to lower her profile, however, her malicious, smug smile at the security camera brings out the vibe of "I know you will look at me". Not to mention that act is not something the denizens of Tokyo always do or will do in the future, while composing herself perfectly. An ordinary criminal who is on the run hardly has the same calmness as this woman. Her details are something that has burnt through the mind of the ex-military man.
"Steele, what's the result?" -ask the driver, who now turns to a darker driveways. There's a brief silent.
"That's her. The girl in Den's picture." -the Ranger answers as he tries to find her ticket information. Jonathan looks at the picture and camera's one as Steele flashes the laptop to the front seat for a second. Sadako's smile also seems to begin affecting the ex-Delta's mentality.
The Corolla drives next to a now vacated train station, in which only consists of the white-ish neon light and ticket vendings as the sole occupants. The almost-quietness of surrounding area, broken by a car engine, slightly spikes up the blood pressure of the passengers. The lit board writes out the word "Sangubashi Station" in both English and Japanese.
"She's coming to this area." -Steele says as he finds out the ticket's destination
"Shit, shit, shit. Better go faster, Craig. Track her phone signal. I want to know her location and Ando's one." -says Jonathan.
As said, the former Marine pushes the gas pedal harder. The car gains its speed toward series of apartment complex, which are all tightly packed together.
"The doctor is around 2 miles from his home." -says the Ranger. Steele then tries to triangulate the girl's phone signal, but everytime it close ups to the complex, he loses his signal.
"What about the girl?" -asks Craig. As the third attempt is also fruitless, Steele shouts out:
"Fuck. She's a clever once. Third time, and as it is locking around the complex, the damned thing loses the signals. What kind of phone can do this?"
"Forget it Steele. We come to Ando's house, we grab his ass and get the fuck out." -says Craig.
"What if she has come there before us? Diplomacy?"
"Not without our insurances." -says Jonathan as he pulls out his carbine from his leg and holds its grip. All firearms have been chambered beforehand. Steele also reaches to his pistol holster.
It doesn't take a long time before the Corolla approaches at the front gate of the apartment. One can see the forensic doctor Ando is closing on the main entrance. Craig quickly finds a decent place to park the car on the right side of the road. It's now eleven fifteen at night.
The former Marine also borrows Steele's laptop to compare the sketches and CCTV's one. Even that he is only skimming, there is also something that shakes Craig's mind as he can remember every details on Sadako's face.
Donning the vest, Jonathan is the first one to get out of the vehicle, followed by Craig and Steele. The trio turns on their laser pods, flashlights (in the lowest intensity, to not giving their attention too much) and raises their gun as the complex has killed off its light. Steele moves himself toward the tall Japanese man who is going inside the hallway. The former Ranger walks as fast he can to not starling Ando. However, the bulky tactical vest has greatly reduced his movement as the doctor is almost at the the other end of the building where the elevator is.
"Doctor Ando!" -says Steele in English as he goes forward and the Japanese man has called the elevator, which is descending abnormally quick.
Mitsuo Ando turns back to the person who has called him, and begins guessing the person is belonging to a paramilitary force named "USEC", based on the patch on the gunner's right pouch.
"Yes?" -the doctor answers in English with hints of Japanese accent. The bearded ex-Ranger lowers his gun to mean that he does not come to harm Ando, as the doctor is their target VIP.
"My name is Steele. I am from United Security company with my friends, coming here as your personal details by the request from your university." -Steele only fabricates the last part, since his name is not real anyway.
"I don't remember needing any foreign bodyguard, Mister Steele." -the doctor is tensing a little, thought he is intimidated by the ex-Ranger's facial expression and firearms, a rare sight in Japan. His mental idea says to him that he should keep calm and doesn't do anything.
However, the half lit elevator doors open up, which indicates that there is an occupant inside as both men can see the shadow creeping out to the dark hallway.
Steele's face becomes angry as he aims his suppressed Mk18 carbine inside the elevator and flicks of the safety. The red-circle with-a-centered-dot reticle from his sight is lining with the center mass of the woman he has tried to track minutes ago, Sadako Yamamura, who responds by giving the American her uncharacteristic smug and seductive smile. Jonathan and Craig comes to the scene and reflexively raises their firearms toward the female subject as they close in to the standoff. Craig moves to the right as Jonathan takes the left, effectively locking the woman in their field of fire.
"Stay in your place, Sadako Yamamura. Don't try anything funny!" -Steele growls.
Jonathan is also surprised by her sudden presence. However, unlike the hot blooded ex-Army Ranger, he tries his best to find out anything about the woman in front of him. That attempt only brings out more question and encourages the ex-Delta's inner sixth sense that she is not as easy as he thinks. His trained and experienced sense of smell tells of a unique and subtle hint of a decayed stench that comes from blood and dead bodies after years on battlefield, beneath the mask of perfumes, soaps and something that affects the Jonathan's olfactory like an animal's reaction to pheromone. As much as her physical body is considered attractive, Jonathan sees something that screams "Evil" in her dark irises.
But the coroner's eyes are overwhelmed with lust, as much as this is only the third time that he has met the woman. His calmed posture has been erased in the moment that three armed men are threatening Ando's subject of desire. Perhaps that's what Sadako is smiling about: she has successfully seduced her target's soul and his will. Ando's alpha instinct is about to drive himself forward and shields Sadako when his right side is painfully hurt: Craig reads the doctor's body language and manages to grab his shoulder joint, then moves toward his neck and cradles the man next to him as the former Marine switches to his pistol, a custom made, suppressed M1911 with his right hand.
"What are you people? She hasn't done anything. She is just a relative of a dead college student!" -says Ando.
Craig still grips the doctor's neck with his arm, and manages to ask a question in not-so-fluid Japanese to the woman:
"Alright Ms. Yamamura...why are you following him? What is so special about him that you are willing to hijack a dead person's account to do it?"
Ando looks at Craig and is surprised as Sadako begins to laugh softly. Her laughter shakes the nerves of the armed Americans; she only emits a sentence in Japanese:
"They know too much about the Ring!"
"And yes, she has used the name Mai Takano as her public alias. I assume you know her, right, doctor?" -Craig explains to Ando, who is horrified since he has felt something creepy in Mai's apartment before her bodies is founded.
"Enough with question, Craig. Let's get the Doc out. We are wasting our time." -says Jonathan.
Craig moves Ando out to the hallways as the woman in the elevator begins moving forward, her allured smile and her lustrous, sharp eyes have never once faded since the elevator door opens. That, however, scares the former Ranger since he doesn't know her intention.
"I say stop right there! I will shoot!" -says Steele as as he keeps his carbine's barrel toward Sadako. She continues moving forward. Unfortunately for Sadako, Steele is a trained soldier at the heart, not a policeman. He won't hesitate to pull the trigger.
CRACK, CRACK...THUD, THUD.
Sadako's torso is bleeding crimson from two wounds in the lower left chest as she is thrown down the floor. That's a hydrostatic shock effect from customized Mk262, a heavier (5.56mm) bullet type that is optimized for stopping power, range from either long or short barrel for U.S Special Operation Command (USSOCOM), and USEC happens to possess a special reserve for its best contractors.
"Killers!" -says Ando in Japanese, turning back to the elevator's direction. Craig immediately covers the doctor's mouth, preventing him from yelling out to the neighborhoods. However, Sadako suddenly stands up, and despite the gunshots, she seems unfaded and keeps on smiling and occasional laughing softly while walking calmly toward the Americans. Her blood is no longer in a dark red color of a living being; the dark fluid begins oozing out of the shot holes. Her eyes are filled with dark veins that takes away her tempted beauty, and her hair starts to grow abnormally longer.
One moment before, it is the carnal desire that takes Mitsuo Ando. Right now, what remains in his soul is the horror expression in his face. Craig is feeling a great chill in his bone. Sweat drops are all over Steele even it is December outside, when the cold wind is blowing outside. Jonathan has a flashback episode of him shooting an attacking Iraqi insurgent dead in a night raid, only to have something likes a black smoke emerging from his carcass, which condenses into a pair of glowing eyes and the same grin through his night vision goggles.
"Get him out of here! I and Steele will hold the bitch back!"
Both Ando and Craig exits the building after Jonathan's order.
"What the fuck are you, really?" -mutters Steele. The former Ranger scans for any sudden movement from his now "resurrected" target. His trigger finger is only centimeters away from taking another aimed shots.
"I thought that all of you should know better than that idiotic reporter Asakawa and that sweet, sweet Takano girl, but you foreigners are just bunch of cold-blooded, stupid and stubborn bastards, aren't you. There is no end of this, even when you can save the doctor and his friends. The Ring will not be stopped!" -says Sadako in Japanese.
Both former Army members don't understand a word, but they all think her words mean a world of harm for both the team and their client, and as such, both are itching their fingers.
Sadako begins reaching toward her purse and gets herself a roll of instant film and a cell phone. That will be her last mistake for the second reborn, she has made her sudden move.
Immediately, Steele and Jonathan begins applying Failure Drill per Den's instruction: use deadly force for this situation. Two men give Sadako four shots to her chest (one of which is straight to her heart) and two shots toward her brain and cranium region.
"Nothing will survive that. Let's get out. No way we can hide the body." -says Jonathan.
Both runs toward the Corolla's location; Mitsuo Ando and Craig has been sitting inside the car as the former is trying to understand everything he has encountered from last week.
Jonathan and Steele open the backdoors and slam them shut quickly. The men quickly fast their seat belt while simultaneously tell Craig.
"Get us outta here, quick!"
The engine starts up as Craig press the gas pedal to turn left in order to reverse the car and turning back the old road. But, by doing so, Craig, Ando and Steele manages to see Sadako calmly walks out the door and waves her hand. Her serene and composed smile is really much the same before she gets shot, and there's not a telltale sight of her wounds like her dried blood.
Jonathan's face has never been more white than today.
As the car passess through the station, Steele grabs his cellphone to report to Den, as instructed:
"Den, do you copy, this is Eagle One. We have extracted Mitsuo Ando. I repeat, we have the VIP."
"Good, give him your phone. I have something to tell him. Your team and the others are to move toward to Hardy Barracks. I will meet all of you there. Godspeed."
"Got it Den. We will meet you there."
Steele moves his phone to Ando, who takes the phone and begins his conversations with Den. The car continues to merge with the still-busy streets of the metropolitan area. Other than Ando's occasional answers, there is not a sound in his car, until Den tells Ando to cut the phone.
Until the car comes close to the U.S installations.
"We have neutralized Sadako, right? Right?" -asks Jonathan to Steele.
No one answers his question. They don't even know the answers themselves.
Note: This is my attempt to bring back the lost horror elements from the novel "Spiral". As the author veers the story into science fiction area in this sequel, I decided to take the approach of one element in James Cameron's "Aliens": the contrast between hyper-masculine, brutal, tactical quick and efficient of the male PMCs and the soft, nonchalant, cunning but persistent personality of their female enemy (Colonial Marines' personality and Ripley's character). In case that you cannot visualize the PMCs, I have modeled the military men after F.B.I. Hostage Rescue Team with twists, since Sadako infects the virus to Ando in the novel, thus making him her de facto hostage. Differences included:
"USEC" in place for "FBI" words.
The eagle patch for the American flag.
Exclusion of helmets, since they are not entering a gunfight.
Otherwise, there is no change in appearance of the PMCs.