Chapter LIV: The Plan
1300hrs, 18 December 2013, Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, Japan
"Prior to departing you home base, you must consider where you are going…Many People deploy and are surprised to find several of their rights, freedoms, and customs are not accepted or recognized." Air Force Manual 10-100, "Airman's Manual."
"Go ahead and hate your neighbor, Go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of Heaven, You can justify it in the end. There won't be any trumpets blowing Come the judgment day, on the bloody morning after, One tin soldier rides away." One Tin Soldier.
"Alright, what are we going to do?" Serena asked group around them.
Lita, Serena, Raye, were sitting back in the conference room, having just come back from the Burger King near their newfound visitor's lodging, on the air base. It was a comfortable, apartment style housing, although they wouldn't be staying there for long.
Serena couldn't ever remember a place like that being open in the rest of Japan; all she had seen was McDonalds and Subway. Perhaps they were being outcompeted? At least the place was open; war or no war, Capitalism chugged on, even on a military base.
Mina and Amy were on the video screen, helping to give more advice. Both of them looked completely exhausted.
"We have three main objectives," Amy said. "First, we are going to take down the Nakanishi corporate officers. Second, we take down the base at Socotra. Third, we blow the lid on this entire operation."
"Well, the last one is pretty self-explanatory," Lita replied, taking a sip of soda from a cup. She was surprised how big it was. 32 ounces? What was that in milliliters?
"It might be a tricky one, but I'm going to work with Luna and Artemis to put together a briefing packet for the major news outlets."
"What's going to be in it?" Serena asked.
"After-mission reports, the PM's correspondence with the Nakanishi Group, Nakanishi internal memos that we picked up from their servers in Tokyo and the United Kingdom, and whatever we can find once we can get to Socotra."
"What about Sudan?" Raye brought up, hesitantly.
"What about...oh. Oh." That brought everyone to a standstill. No one wanted to remember that tragic incident.
"That's what I was talking about, Raye, when we shouldn't go to the media right away," Amy pointed out. "How do you think that'll make us look, if we can't pin it to the Nakanishi Group?"
"But people might understand!" Raye protested. "We can't just bury that part of our past! What about the hundred innocent people who died that day? Do they not count as well?"
"Or they might not understand," Mina piped up from behind Amy. "Raye, what we did that day was not our fault."
More like, what you did that day, Mina dryly thought. I wasn't the one who had the flamethrower. Akamatsu should have taken that away from her, his precious BMW be damned.
"Look, Raye, it'll all come out in good time, but we NEED to stay focused on killing the last of the Nakanishi Group before they can regroup and do something even worse. Whatever Beryl has cooked up, she's going to keep pushing forward with whatever evil plan that she's got going. So, I'll take of the third part of the plan. Don't worry about it, okay?"
Raye wanted to protest some more, but she could see that the rest of the group was turning against her in that regard. "Alright, fine. But don't go skimping out on details, okay?"
"The entire group will have a say in this, I assure you," Amy said.
"Thank you, Raye," Serena patted Raye on the back. She hadn't been the same ever since then, and this entire turn of events had been extremely hard on everyone.
"Okay. Moving on to the other company officers, who should do what?" Amy was now drinking some coffee on the other end, much to everyone's surprise.
"Luna mentioned the Italian government located Zoicite. Something about Dr. Kobayashi having some friends there and stuff."
Serena nodded at that statement. "I think I should take my team and go take out Zoicite. You guys have been to India, and know some people there. It would simplify operations on that end, and we could get assistance from the Italian government."
"That's a good course of action," Mina noted. "We'll go after Jadeite in India."
"Alright then. Let's break it to the others."
Twenty minutes later, the Luna, Artemis, and the others were gathered in the conference room.
This time, the call to the PM had gone through, and he would be joining them for this briefing.
The call was a four way one, with Amy and Mina in America, POTUS in Air Force One, the rest of the SAILOR team at Yokota Air Base, and the PM at his residence in Tokyo. It was certainly possible, and with the secure link that Luna and Amy had set up earlier, free from Nakanishi eavesdropping.
"Madame President, Prime Minister," Amy spoke to the two leaders. "We'll make this brief, since I know you have much to do."
"Tell me about it," Hamilton replied. She looked at her cell phone for the time. 0000hrs. Another sleepless night. She found it strange that this foreign special operations unit was in essence, working for her. That must have violated a bajillon laws in the process, but there wasn't much choice in the matter. They were in a better position to take down the Nakanishi Group, since they had been working defacto for them.
Prime Minister Hasegawa simply nodded, partly out of tiredness, but out of shame as well. He had lied, time and again to these people, and how there were not only cleaning up his mess for him, but even letting him off the hook…ish. He had been briefed earlier that the President knew about SAILOR, and that he should expect some serious questioning from her.
"Why isn't Serena giving the briefing?" Lita whispered to Raye. "She's the one in charge, right?"
"Her English isn't all that good, remember?" Raye hissed back. "And it seems the President of the United States trusts Amy more anyway."
"Shh, you two," Serena admonished. The three of them shut up and got back to listening to the briefing.
"Ma'am, our plan is threefold; first, we go after the remaining Nakanishi COOs and disrupt their leadership. Second, we go after their base in Socotra. Third…well, we'll get to that point later. For now, let's focus on the first two."
"Do you know where they are?"
"Yes, we've tracked down one officer in Florence, Italy, and another is under siege in Bangalore. We have some old contacts that our medical staff have dredged up, and they provided a general location for his location. "
"I've heard." The massive siege had been underway, and India, a country usually ignored in the major media outlets despite its size, was suddenly all over the news channels.
"I'm asking for some help getting back into India," Amy asked. "Our last stay there…well, we caused quite a mess and I'm afraid they won't be so kind this time around."
"I can allow access," the President said confidently. "Same for the Italian government."
Hasegawa mumbled something along the lines of "Yes, I'll do that too," and the briefing moved on.
"This base at Socotra…" POTUS asked her, looking at some notes. "We don't know anything about it. All we know on this end is that the Nakanishi Group has it on lease from the Yeminis, in exchange for helping to develop their petroleum industry."
"We've been unable to ascertain much," Luna interrupted. "Sorry," she said, as the President gave her a look. "We haven't come up with anything on the Nakanishi Servers about this facility."
"Understood. Why shouldn't we just bomb the place?"
The President had no intention of doing so, but she needed a good reason why they were just sieging the place instead of blowing the ever-living fuck out of it. Maybe they would blow the ever-living fuck out of it after they got done with the island, just to be sure.
Luna tapped on some icons on her tablet computer. "Well, we did notice that the Nakanishi Group transferred a bunch of data from their servers in Japan and the United Kingdom to Socotra, but we've been unable to access any of it remotely. The only other option is to go in there and retrieve it physically."
"I see. And some of that information might be useful how…?"
"It'll might be important for cleaning up Nakanishi influence in the world, and perhaps future research and development. But the main reason is to take out the leadership, Beryl and Kunzite. They hold the key to breaking down the entire structure."
"What about Beryl and Kunzite?"
"Taking them alive…might pose a problem," Amy said. "They've violated so many treaties and laws in so many different countries, charging them with a crime, let alone prosecuting them would be extremely difficult."
"There's always the World Court," Serena pointed out.
"Right…" POTUS and Amy replied, not swayed at all. Amy continued on. "A Precision strike by our team, and I do mean our team, would obtain what information they know, eliminate them, and provide a path for your forces to take credit for taking the island without too much fuss."
Hamilton pondered that option for a second. It sounded too good to be true…and from what she had been told about the SAILOR team, along with some information that had been sent over by that "Luna" person. It looked like they could be up for the job, although Delta Force or the SEALs would be her choice. But since nobody knew of this unit…it could work. Even the general populace knew who Delta was, so sending in a foreign unit would help shift the blame if something went horribly wrong. She didn't express that point though to them however.
"And the third point?" the President asked. She needed to get off of that subject and onto something else.
"Excuse me?" Amy said.
"You had a third part to your plan."
"Oh, yes. This unit will disband and go to the media, exposing the true extent of Nakanishi operations in Asia and in the world in general." Amy said it so nonchalantly that it took almost everyone off guard.
Ah shit, POTUS thought. Shouldn't have asked that one.
The President did a very bad job at disguising her emotions on that statement, coming off as a bit shocked as it had the potential to be quite embarrassing. Hasegawa, as usual, said nothing.
"Are you sure that's wise? The last part, I mean."
"Absolutely Madame President," Amy said to her. "The world needs to know about the secrets of the Nakanishi Group…how they used us, how they made us to carry out their agenda, how they manipulated an entire nation, a nation that has only wanted peace after suffering from the ravages of nuclear warfare. Madame President, that is what we're going to blow the lid off of this entire program."
So much for a deniable operations team. If news broke about this SAILOR team…the shit was really going to hit fan on this one.
"What's stopping you from doing it now?" the President asked. She looked at Hasegawa, but he was in a stupor, almost unable to respond to what was going on in the conversation. "Mr. Hasegawa. Mr. Hasegawa!"
"Yes…?" he said dimly.
"Please, we need you here," she admonished.
"Yes, of course," Hasegawa replied, wearily.
Amy continued on. "Madame President, releasing this information before the Nakanishi Group has been completely and utterly destroyed would only tip our hand, and might cause them to do something hasty. They would be able to at least anticipate some of our moves now, but they'll be able to successfully distract the rest of the world from their predicament if they can shine light on secret special forces units running around uncontrolled."
That makes no sense, POTUS thought. If the Nakanishi Group wanted to reveal the SAILOR unit…hell, if she wanted to reveal the SAILOR unit, then all of their nice planning would go up in smoke. They could do it in an instant, so why was the Nakanishi Group silent all of a sudden? Repeated calls to the island base at Socotra went unanswered, and from the task force stationed there, no movement had been observed. No demands had been heard from them as well. It just seemed that they were in a holding pattern, waiting and watching. She had been thinking about putting an invasion force onshore, but to be safe, most of the ships had been prevented from putting away teams on the island. That might change in the next couple of days, if they deemed it safe enough to put some Navy personnel ashore, along with some Marines and other units.
"Amy…I'm confused," the President said. "Why not just let us handle it? Can't you break the news now?"
"Madame President, this is our mess. This is our responsibility. If the Prime Minister hadn't created us, we would be in for a much bigger mess than we are in right now. So in the interest of Japan, in our reputation, and perhaps the betterment of all parties involved, we will take care of this. We're just on par with any of your Tier One units, and we've only been around for six months or so. Plus, if things go south, well…"
Amy knew exactly what the President was thinking. She didn't want to risk any more involvement, and a bunch of dead Navy SEALs or Delta Force operatives did not make for good publicity, let alone the operational effectiveness of the US military. But the President would back them 100 percent of the way, that was for sure.
"Thank you for your plan, and for letting me know," POTUS said to her. "The Prime Minister and I will discuss this issue briefly and get back to you."
POTUS cut the feed with them, and turned her full attention to the Japanese Prime Minister. "Mr. Hasegawa, what do you think?"
"What…what do I think?"
"Yes, what do you think?" Hamilton said, trying to hide her irritation. She did not like to repeat herself, and it was clear that the Japanese PM was stalling for time.
"It sounds like a good plan…except for the last part, to which you pointed out the flaws."
"But it would do more harm to you than for me," Hamilton pointed out. "And you're the one in charge Mr. Hasegawa, not I."
This was a lost cause. Hasegawa was going to agree, no matter how he tried to reason his way out of the mess he found himself in. He looked at his desk that he was sitting at, longing for that flask of whisky that would dim the pain that he had been feeling all these days.
"I don't see what other choice we have."
"Very good then."
President Hamilton looked at him for a second. He was tired, and his body showed the great strain that had been placed upon him in the last couple of days.
"Prime Minister, I'm ashamed of you."
Hasegawa could only bow his head lower, out of apology, but also to avoid the piercing glare of the President.
"We did everything to help you out with the tsunami in 2011. When you needed us, we were there. When you needed aid, we sent everything we had, even though in our country, thousands barely scrape by in the economic downturn. This is the thanks we receive? Tens of thousands are dead now, men, women, and children in the senseless violence. And you could have stopped it! You could have stopped the Nakanishi Group!" POTUS had to reel in her anger. She had to remain professional, or at least, the veneer of professionalism.
"And you think we weren't grateful?!" the PM snapped back. POTUS recoiled a little bit from his outburst, but quickly regained her composure. "I lost my only child in the tsunami! We never even found her body. I was denied the opportunity to at least properly cremate my child…Madame President, you are mistaken in your assumptions. We were all blinded by the Nakanishi Group! I had NO choice in the matter. They…they…"
Hasegawa trailed off, his energy spent. President Hamilton sighed at the pathetic sight, and decided to end this conversation.
"Sign off on your SAILOR unit and have them move out. Or do you want me to take command personally for your problems?"
"N-n-n-no. I'll do it."
"That's the spirit, Mr. Hasegawa. Now if you excuse me, I have some other business to attend to, so if you would mind briefing this team that you're supposedly in charge of, that would be great."
She terminated the video connection to the Japanese PM before he could get a response in.
The PM's face flashed up on the video screen again, surprising everyone.
"Everyone, listen up." Hasegawa's voice pierced the tense air around the small conference room in the hanger. "The President of the United States and I have agreed to your plan."
There was a collective exhaling amongst everyone gathered.
"You may begin your preparations as soon as possible, and to rid the world of the Nakanishi Group," the PM said tiredly.
"Easy for you to say," Serena said out loud. Six months ago, such an insult would have been punished severely. Now, the PM of Japan was a joke, a laughingstock, and worst of all, seen as an ineffectual and pathetic leader.
"Contact my office if you need anything," the PM said, ignoring Serena's comments. He terminated the call, leaving only a blank screen.
"Let's get ready then," Serena announced to the SAILOR team.
