Chapter 10
While she was sending the Birdscramble, Jun examined her body. She was still wearing the shirt and pants she had been dressed in for her audience with Leader X. Gently, she felt the area of her body from which she sensed the most pain. Some kind of bandage covered her lower back, and she could tell that a small incision had been made. Jun flexed her muscles gently. The pain was still there, but she could ignore it if she had to.
She had to escape. Jun could not let Leader X use her as a tool of Galactor. She also had important information for the ISO… and for Joe. This was the only time she had been left alone, so she had to use it wisely. How could she escape?
Jun pulled the IV from her arm, then carefully swung her legs over the side of the bed, slowly placing her feet on the floor and transferring her weight to them. So far, so good.
She was just about to stand up when the door opened. Jun turned off her bracelet, terminating the Birdscramble. She just hoped that the team had been able to trace her location. She looked up, expecting to see Haruka, already forming an explanation for her behavior.
"I just wanted to…" the words died on her lips as she saw who stood in the doorway.
"Jun…" Katse said, walking over to her. "I owe you my life."
"Don't mention it." muttered Jun. Katse was the last person she wanted to see. Could she escape now? Quickly she weighed the odds in her head. She had no doubt that she could best him in a one-on-one fight, even in her weakened condition, and without the benefit of Birdstyle. Katse had never been known for his fighting skills, after all. But could she do it before an alarm was raised? Perhaps, but it was risky at best. Still, it was all she had.
Jun was just about to strike when Katse spoke again.
"I know that you were forced into this." he said quietly, "I want to make it up to you. I want to help you leave."
Jun looked up, surprise and relief washing over her face. Katse smirked triumphantly.
"Why would you do that?" Jun asked, suddenly suspicious.
"As I said, I owe you." Katse repeated. "I don't like to owe anybody. That's not the way Galactor operates. If I do this for you, we are even."
Jun liked the sound of that. Not that she had any compunctions about killing Katse where he stood, but at least this way, there could never be any kind of lingering guilt about such an act.
Katse silently rejoiced. How easy it was, getting rid of this child. He could fabricate some story for Leader X, and she would make it her business to stay as far away from Galactor as possible. He knew he really should just kill her, but his feelings of indebtedness to this girl made him uncomfortable with that course of action. Strange… he had never had any moral or ethical issues with killing to suit his purposes, but this was… different. He didn't care to examine why.
Jun knew that this could be a trick, but escaping with Katse's help was preferable to doing it on her own. She would watch her back, and be ready to strike, if necessary.
"What do you propose?" she asked.
"An alarm will sound in five minutes." Katse said quietly. "All personnel will be summoned to emergency stations. The rest will be up to you."
It was more than enough… if Katse was actually going to make it happen.
"How do I know I can trust you?" Jun asked.
"What other choice do you have?" Katse sneered.
Jun nodded curtly.
"I'm glad we understand each other, then." the Galactor leader said. "I'll be going, now."
But as he reached for the door, he turned to look at Jun.
"I'm sorry I couldn't have been… a father." he acknowledged.
"I have my own family." Jun replied, returning his gaze with equal intensity. "And I am returning to them."
Katse turned and left the room.
Jun waited breathlessly, alone in the room.
A short time later, she heard the alarm. Sounds of confusion came filtered into the room, followed by some sharply barked orders, and then silence.
Jun counted to thirty, then opened the door.
The hallway outside was empty. Quietly, she crept down the corridor, watching for any signs of activity. There were none.
Jun's destination was the hangar. If she could steal one of the mecha planes, she would have a good chance of escaping. Of course, there was always the chance that the others were on their way, but Jun wasn't certain that she had left the Birdscramble going long enough to be traced.
She made use of a nearby computer station to obtain a general layout of the base, then made her way toward her goal.
What she hadn't counted on, was that the hangar was apparently one of the 'emergency stations' Katse had mentioned. It was full of green-suited goons. There were hundreds, maybe a thousand, of them.
Jun had come too far to back down now. She needed a distraction. Accessing an unmanned control station, she analyzed the available data.
Yes… that would do.
Pulling off the cover, Jun rewired circuits in the panel, re-routing power and controls to where she wanted them to go. She wasn't entirely sure it would work, but it had a good chance. Crossing her fingers, she initiated her sequence of instructions.
As she had planned, the largest of the planes in the hangar suddenly fired one of its missiles, directly into the mass of troops waiting for emergency instructions.
What Jun hadn't planned on were the secondary detonations. Missiles, bombs, rocket launchers, and other heavy artillery were apparently stored in compartments located around the hangar. The initial explosion set off one such compartment, and then another, and another, causing the entire base to ignite in a violent reaction some ten seconds after the initial blast.
Jun threw herself to the floor as the nearby door to the hangar exploded, raining shards of glass in all directions. Ignoring the cuts the glass inflicted on her bare feet, she stood up, staring at what was left of the hangar, intense heat baking her face, and scorching her throat as she breathed.
A raging inferno was claiming everything inside. There was no way she could enter.
Quickly, Jun ran in the opposite direction, ducking down a side corridor that she hoped would lead to an exit.
It did. Or rather, it did now. A large chunk of the wall had been torn away with the initial missile blast, but for the moment there were no flames here.
Only sunshine, and a barren, rocky landscape.
Unfortunately, three goons stood gaping at this unexpected sight. Running up behind them, Jun dealt a swift kick to one man's head. He slumped to the ground, eyes rolling back under his mask.
The other two men turned to Jun.
"Look, Iwao, it's that bitch!" one cried.
"Little Miss Obedient." sneered the other.
Jun smiled to herself. It was time for some payback. Iwao and Toru were about to get what was coming to them.
Whirling, she executed a roundhouse kick, knocking their weapons out of their hands, before they could get off a shot.
Shouting angrily, the goons attempted to grapple her, but Jun crouched low, avoiding their grasp. She shot out her leg for a large sweep, sending them tumbling to the ground.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Iwao reach for his fallen weapon. Rolling over, she snatched up the other gun, turning to spray bullets in the direction of the two men. They both twitched violently, then lay unmoving on the ground.
"Good riddance to bad garbage." Jun muttered, kicking Iwao in the face with her bare foot. She looked up, and saw freedom.
Jun did not see the canisters of jet fuel located just outside of the ragged hole that the initial blast had created. She stepped out, into the late-afternoon sunlight, just as the flames from the hangar reached the first canister.