FMP Fanfiction
Shougeki
by Esoteria
Author's Note: Okay, I accidentally uploaded Chapter 10 of Hito instead of Shougeki. Oops. Thanks for letting me know, Mangadude.
Chapter 10
----
"Oh."
It was Jesse, the man from the pawn shop. He stopped short when he rounded the corner and encountered Sousuke. "I thought I heard you talking to somebody."
Sousuke looked straight at him. "Ah, no, I was simply speaking to myself."
"Something about information?"
"Yes, while I understand the others do not yet trust me, I was somewhat frustrated with how little I know about what operation I'm supposed to be protecting." Sagara decided that speaking the partial truth was the least likely to raise suspicion.
"Oh, yeah, well… we're in the middle of L.A. and all. They can't tell much of anybody anything."
"I understand. For what reason have you come out here?"
"I'm headed home, actually. Usually don't go this way cause I get a gun pointed at me, but I heard you were on patrol tonight so I wanted to see how that revolver was working out for you."
Sagara was beginning to find it irritating how many people seemed to take an interest in his handgun. His irritation was assuaged by the man's amicable demeanor and Sousuke's own disinterest in ultimately killing him.
"I've become familiar with it."
"Good. Well, I'm going back to the wife, see you." He turned to leave.
"Jesse." Sousuke stopped him.
"…Yeah?"
"Have you considered getting out of this line of work? I was told there is another syndicate planning an assault."
"Somebody like you, worried about me? Heh. I already told you didn't I? We can't get out now. We're too scared of you-know-what. The same goes for you, too. I warned you. Anyway we'd better shut up about this."
"Roger. Well, good evening."
Jesse jogged off into the darkness.
After nearly half a minute with Sousuke standing still at the corner, a pair of boots hit the ground behind him.
"That was incredible." Sousuke turned around.
"What?" Corbin asked with a suppressed grin.
"I've not seen anyone move so quickly."
Right after they had heard the footsteps and the voice, Corbin had suddenly leapt and run part way up the wall. In the end he'd gotten high enough to hang by the top of the barrier on the next floor up. Since the ground level was lower than the road, it had been roughly eleven feet in height. He had hung there, still, in the darkness for the past minute.
"I may not look like it, but I'm pretty experienced with covert ops."
"And now you're in the intelligence division."
Louis's tone changed. "After the wife died, I got out of the killing business."
There were several sarcastic ways to respond to this, such as "But here you are again." The way he had started the sentence, though, made such remarks highly uncalled for.
"I… wasn't aware you were married," Sousuke said at last.
"Yeah. Happily. For two years." He sighed at length. "Two years of her telling me every night and day 'I wish you would get out of that business.' Ironic that she's the one who ended up dying, and not me."
Sagara wasn't good with these kinds of situations. Lost war buddies or comrades were one thing. A wife was something he couldn't relate to. He dared to ask in the quiet of the night, "What happened?"
"Cancer. Found out about it only two weeks before she died. Actually I've got a friend named Ethan whose sister has the same cancer. She's been hanging on for years though. Not sure which is worse, to be honest."
"That is very unfortunate."
"Yeah. I've been trying to make ends meet ever since. I don't mean financially, obviously. You and I both know Mithril pays well. I mean emotionally… spiritually."
"Spiritually…," Sousuke repeated thoughtfully.
"She's up in heaven now. Not hurting anymore. I'm down here still."
Heaven, Sousuke thought. Is there really such a place?
"Are you a believer…, uhh…?" Corbin's voice trailed off when he realized he didn't know a name to call him by.
"Sagara Sousuke. And no… not really."
"Ouch. Got a girlfriend, Sagara?"
"No."
"Maybe I'm not so bad off." Louis chuckled half-heartedly.
"There's an English saying about that, is there not?" Sousuke asked.
"You mean 'Tis better to have loved and lost love than to never have loved at all.' And I hate that saying. I haven't lost love. I still love her."
"My apologies."
"Don't worry about it. Hey, what's your call sign?"
"Urzu 7."
"Mind if I just call you 'Seven?' Then I won't have to use your fake name."
"I don't mind. Clearly you have no problem with being called Corbin here."
"It's been so long since I've been a 'real person' that my name doesn't have a true meaning anymore."
"Are you speaking metaphorically?"
"I'd have to be, wouldn't I? But yeah, I mean since I've been an official citizen and all that."
"What is your ethnicity?"
"Not sure. I've been using this name for a long time now, but it's made up just like everything else about me. Worst part was when I got married, trying to get all that legal stuff worked around."
"That would be troublesome."
"I can tell you're sick of the small talk, Seven. I don't really blame you. You're probably like I was back then…."
Sagara didn't ask him to complete the thought. "What is the current course of action?"
"'Don't die.'"
"What?"
"That's the plan right now. Don't die. Until I get all the mistrust worked out of the system here, we can't make a move anyway."
"I should lay low, then."
"Very low."
"Do you intend to be promoted to the upstairs before we take action?"
"It was too much to hope for since the beginning. Now it's definitely not going to happen. It's not your fault, though, Seven. If you ask me, Mithril really botched this whole project up. I needed more than one man, and while I'm sure you're good if you're in the SRT, it's pretty obvious you're the new guy."
"I am prepared to perform whatever duties would be required of a higher ranked individual."
"I'm telling you, I don't doubt it. It's not you who's the problem. Anyway, that's my business to deal with. For now I'll be planning a two-man infil."
"If at all possible, I would like some sort of assignment in the meantime. My patrol route and general schedule leaves significant amounts of time unaccounted for."
"Well, I had thought about that, but I don't kn—"
"I am capable."
"Right… sorry. Okay, yeah. That warehouse you parked the M9 in, I need you to investigate it. What I want are delivery schedules, truck routes, et cetera."
"The Mithril Intelligence network does not have such information?"
Corbin sighed briefly, but not in irritation. "That's a fair question to ask. The truth is I've had to cut off my communications since your arrival. We're working alone as of now."
"The distrust is that high?"
"Definitely. If I'm going to earn it back, I've got to stop disappearing all the time."
"Like you are now."
"Exactly."
"Does that mean our time here is at an end?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"Understood. Once I procure this information, I will have it on hand for whenever it is convenient for you to meet me."
"Sounds good. I can get your schedule when I need it. We'll probably run into each other a lot anyway, but we have to act somewhat formal, since we were just coworkers in the past and all."
"Roger. I will complete my patrol route and begin the investigation immediately."
"See you around, Seven." Louis turned back the other way to return to the south ramp. "Oh!" He stopped suddenly. "There's a girl in the upstairs, watch out for her."
"I believe I've met her already. She was wearing body armor resistant to slashing weapons."
"That's the one. By 'met her already' I assume you mean in the same way everyone else does."
"At the firing range. There was no physical contact."
Corbin laughed out loud. "Man, I've got to say I respect you for that… but I'm worried about you for that just the same."
"The cosmetics on her mouth were suspicious."
"I'm sure that's why. Hahah. See you." Louis jogged off.
After a few moments, Sousuke asked of himself, "Why would that make him worry?"
----
"What is it?" Sagara gave concerned looks to both Chidori and Tessa, who were laughing and blushing respectively.
"You really don't know why, Sousuke?" Kaname kept laughing.
"Sagara-san!" Tessa looked at him accusingly. "You never told me there was a woman like that there!"
"Like he'd tell you," Kaname said, still chuckling. "He probably didn't even think about it again anyway."
"That is not true," Sagara said, silencing the other two.
"He's right." Mao's voice came from the doorway suddenly. "He told me all about it later." She was standing up groggily.
"Sergeant!" Tessa shouted. "I order you to tell me of any such incidents from now on!" She pouted.
"What?" Sousuke felt cornered. "Well, I suppose I—"
"He doesn't have to do that," Mao said.
"Yes he does! And the same goes with your current mission!"
"I—" Sousuke looked at Kaname worriedly.
"He doesn't have to do that either!" Melissa shouted back at Tessa. "If he and Kaname want to k—"
"Shut up!" Chidori silenced the room. Her face was quite red. "Continue the story, please!"
Nobody said anything.
Melissa broke the silence some time later. "Tessa, did you really get out of these with a paper clip?"
"The story!" Kaname pounded her fist on the back of the chair.
----
It was a silent night inside the warehouse. The security guard had come inside for a few moments to rest. He leaned back in the desk chair and stretched his arms. He was a fit man. He had to be. No one with a criminal record or who had failed a strenuous physical examination could get this kind of job. He'd been training for the police force in a more northern part of California when he'd heard about the warehouse security job that paid a little too well. He found out just why it paid so well quickly: if he was found responsible for leaking information about this facility to anyone, he'd be given a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
When he'd taken the job, this town was in a much better state of affairs. Now things were fast going downhill and his job was becoming more and more dangerous. His superiors had given him several hefty bonuses to keep him around, and it was no wonder. He'd been the guard here for years. Since before the XM9 even existed. Still, crime rates in the area were skyrocketing, and for reasons the newspapers couldn't understand, police activity in the area was not rising to the occasion. This portion of Los Angeles was becoming a thorn in the side of the state government, but for whatever reason they didn't take any action. There were rumors about secret weapons development and experimentation, but none of them ever took hold. Some cover stories included the buildings being used for Special Forces training and other convenient-sounding excuses, but there was no official story. The whole thing was just about to become unavoidable.
Events like a few nights before hadn't made the guard feel any better. The person he thought was just a trespasser turned out to be pretty suspicious. Accounting for missing .45 ammunition had been a real mess. Covering the whole incident after that point wasn't much easier. But late this evening, at the beginning of his shift, a very strange phone call had come in.
Suddenly, a hand appeared and covered his mouth, and then another slid over his shoulder. Before he knew it, the guard had a silver gun barrel pushed under his chin. "Don't move."
The guard froze. He knew the voice. It spoke again.
"I've returned for some information. Will you give it to me?"
The guard nodded slowly. Through the reflection on the glass window in front of him, he watched Sousuke stand up behind the chair slowly. The gun barrel moved to the side of his neck.
"You will cooperate fully, and when I leave this place, you will give no indication to anyone that I was here. I have heard of the punishment that one of your position can receive for doing what you are about to do. I assure you that the punishment for not doing it or for telling anyone that you did is much worse."
Sousuke removed his hand from the man's mouth, keeping the gun pointed at his neck. "Do you recognize me now?"
The guard nodded. "He told me you'd be back…," he said nervously.
"Who? Who told you?" Sousuke pushed the pistol hard.
He coughed several times. "I—I don't know for sure. He told—," the guard swallowed when the barrel's pressure subsided slightly. "He told me a lot of information that nobody should've known unless they worked higher up. He said if I told anyone about you coming that he'd make it look like he got all the information from me."
"All the confidential information?"
"Yes… and he said you'd come for the truck routes and schedules."
Corbin. Sousuke thought. He still doesn't think I can do my job. But even so, this makes things a lot easier.
"If he contacted you in this manner he surely had found a way to avoid any tapping or recording of the conversation. Did he say why you couldn't tell him the information over the phone?" Sousuke asked.
"No, but I couldn't have anyway. The schedules are all done by computer. No one but the programmer knows for sure what the schedule for next week will be, because it's all done in a certain…"
"A certain what?" Sousuke angrily demanded.
The guard answered quickly, and in a panic. "A certain sequence! A sequence! I don't know exactly how it works, I just know that the program decides the schedules."
"So you have a copy of the program."
"No, that's the problem. He hung up before I could tell him, but I can't copy it. It's got all sorts of protection…."
"Give me your gun."
"What?"
"Do it."
The guard held one shaking hand up and carefully removed the handgun from its holster with the other. He handed it to Sousuke who stood behind him.
Sagara took the weapon and removed the magazine. He ejected the bullet from the chamber and set all three pieces aside.
"He's testing me." Sousuke said under his breath.
(to be continued…)