Sousuke was heading deeper underground.
If it hadn't have been for serendipity, he never would have found this lair. The presence of such a den of iniquity disturbed hum. It did nothing more than emphasize man's destructive and cruel nature. Why did it have to be located beneath temples highlighting the heights of mankind's creativity?
The situation had Sousuke thinking about duality.
The Sphinx came to mind. Actually, the subject of sphinxes in general.
Ask some people about the Sphinx, and they will mention the Great Sphinx of Egypt, rediscovered by the Western world when Napoleon's soldiers came across it in the 1700s. Few people were not familiar with the crouching leonine form and its weathered pharoah's head.
But, that was not the only such monument in Egypt---or the world, for that matter. Assyria, amongst other nations, had altars and other structures that depicted creatures with the body of a beast and the head of a man or king.
In Egypt, there had once been countless lesser sphinxes. Some were carved as crouching, meant as guardians against evil. Others were carved as standing, meant to represent conquerors.
To anyone well versed in ancient Greek stories, the first sphinxes were something totally different. Those mythical beasts were ghostlike monsters that carried off children, and who often showed up at the scene of fatal fights. They had been the furthest things from guardians or noble conquerors..
Other individuals, familiar with the better known tale of Oedipus, would know the Sphinx as a terrible rapacious beast plaguing Thebes. That mysterious creature---with the body of a winged lion and the head of a woman---had reportedly frequented the major highway. To each and every person who passed by her lair, the Sphinx asked a singular question: "What animal is it that in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two feet, and in the evening on three feet?"
Those who failed to answer her riddle she destroyed.
Oedipus declared the answer to be man himself, who in childhood crawled upon his hands and knees, in manhood stood erect, and in old age shuffled along supporting himself by a staff. Having discovered one who knew the answer to her riddle, the sphinx cast herself from the cliff which bordered the road and perished.
In a sense, Sousuke faced the Sphinx today. The riddle he wrestled with was no less difficult. Could he be a soldier...... fight for the good of mankind...... and still be fit for society?
If he could somehow tone down the characteristics that served him so well in battle...... in order to fit in better at school and other institutions of a civilized society...... would it detract from his prowess as a fighter?
Taking that last question further, he wondered what would happen if he followed Kaname's wishes. If he became more like other 'normal' boys, would it limit his ability to protect her?
Was there some way he could have his cake and eat it too? Could he become more fit as a warrior, as well as better suited for every day life?
He sighed, realizing once again that it may all be a moot point, at least as far as Kaname was concerned.
Head spinning, he sat back and closed his eyes for a moment, feeling a need to rest them.
An image of Kaname appeared. Her own head was gone, replaced by that of Anubis. With each explosion at school, she add more weight to his heart. With every battle he left to fight in, she added still more.
What would happen if she could somehow examine all of the memories he had been inundated with? Would she take the feather away, and let his heart fall into the ever hungry mouth of Ammut?
And If Kaname ever came to mean more to him than she already did.... if he was capable of normasl human feelings...... would he have to choose between Kaname and Mithril?
Could they let him go?
Would she wait?
Was there any way to satisfy them both?
Duality.
Sousuke was distracted when the woman ran out in front of his Arm Slave. Throwing the control lever to the side, he managed to evade her. It had almost been a repeat of dark days gone by. The woman was waving her arms. He turned up the external microphones. She was claiming to be a captive, a forced laborer at the underground base.
He did not see the pistol tucked into the rear of her waistband until too late.
That shouldn't have even been an issue.
His orders had been unambiguous.
"Kill any f-cking person you see, Sousuke. Anybody down in one of those holes is too dangerous, either in what they have done..... what they possess..... or what they know. This isn't Sunday school. We get no points for being nice. The threat ends, we win. The danger moves elsewhere, we lose." Sgt. Major Mao had been brutally direct..
The woman was young, with long dark hair. That, and her contour, reminded Sousuke of Kaname.
His delay wasn't a long one, but it proved more than sufficient.
She was not working alone.
There were two groups of two men each, armed with a medium sized ATGMs and spare missile tubes. The first missile fired before he could get a shot off. The imapact threw his M9 backward sharply. It tumbled ass over teacups, landing on its metallic rump. Sparks shot out from power couplings, and a small trickle of hydraulic fluid trickled down the side of the machine.
His Bofors was thirty feet away from him.
He was dead center in the cross-hairs of the next fire team.
As Sousuke reached back for the Hellbore, the second ATGM team and their weapon exploded, splattered against the walls and floor of the tunnel. The girl had turned an ran, but she too ended up as a grotesque set of bloody hieroglyphics. Soon, the entire force had been obliterated.
"Sitting down on the job, eh Sousuke? Never thought I'd see the day. That will win me a beer from Melissa. Maybe something more. Oh Yeh!!!" It was Kurz.
Sniper rifle out, he had made short work of the terrorists and their helpers. "She WAS cute, amigo. But you picked one Hell of a time to go through puberty!"
Sousuke knew one thing already. The greatest damage he took from this incident was not to his Arm Slave. He would be hearing about this from Kurz for a long time.
Kurz patched in a call to Melissa, who checked in on Sousuke for a mission update and an accounting of the damage he had suffered.
"I have lost 50 percent function in the left arm, but all other systems and weapons are operational. We are about to head into a large expanse. It appears to be a large underground garage and loading area. The scanner shows an number of 18-wheeled trucks..... a pen for camels..... lifting machinery..... and incompletely assembled Arm Slaves of the 'Shadow' type."
Sousuke flipped through various optical devices. "I am picking up a large number of heat sources around the trucks. No doubt the terrorists are in the process of loading cargo."
"Terminate everybody and everything with extreme prejudice. I expect----" The transmission halted for a while, then came back on.
"Destroy all remaining equipment and facilities as quickly as possible. We will need to move out immediately, if not sooner. The ground troops have found a PC and a number of discs detailing names, dates, buyers, and shipment details. We caught them in time, it seems. For the most part." She cursed before going on..
"Aside from those three trucks you intercepted, three additional vehicles left yesterday, They will have been loaded aboard the William Shouten, a 25,000 ton container ship registered out of Mauritius. There could be more than one hundred containers on board that ship, making it hard to find the three we want.. If we can't identify the ones we need, it will be necessary to send the entire ship to the bottom."
"But Sis, why don't we wait until the ship reaches the sea and have Da Danaan take her out?" Kurz's question was valid.
"We don't have time. If word of our little shindig here reached the wrong ears, who knows how much stuff they could toss off or smuggle out."
"Why not an air strike...... now...... while the ship is still at anchor?" Sousuke asked the obvious question. "A cruise missile, with a low yield conventional warhead, would also suffice."
"Politics and secrets, Sousuke. The shit we grunts keep our hands clean of. The men in Egypt who helped sneak us into the country did so with one proviso. There can be no large scale and newsworthy attacks on targets like ports, harbors, airports, or points of commerce. Our little skirmish will be easy to cover up. Literally. The desert sands ought to fill in the holes we made." Melissa switched to another channel momentarily, then switched back.
"No more talk. Get to work. I'm heading out at top speed. Follow when you can."
Mithril appeared intent on taking the higher road. They had promised not to attack high visibility targets within Egypt by noticeable means. That meant that they would refrain from doing so. An attack on a single cargo ship..... carried out by unknown forces..... could easily be attributed to some terrorist group or underground faction. But, a strike by aircraft or missile could very easily draw Israel into a situation its hands were actually clean of.
Men who backed Mithril---and kept her secrets---may become less inclined to do so if something like that happened.
Sousuke just hoped that the loss of surprise wouldn't be costly.
Working well as a team, he and Kurz cleaned up the figurative nest of vipers. They headed out quickly, hot on Melissa's heels. The sands clearing, Sousuke turned his viewers to the rear. He got the glimpse of Abu Simbel that he had always wished for as they were heading out.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The waterway was swarming with Egyptian troops.
They had been anonymously summoned to prevent the escape of terrorists and an unknown hazardous compound. A number of suspicious characters had been shot when they put up a resistance. At the order of top brass, the materials they carried were dropped into the Nile.
The men on the ship William Shouten put up a fierce fight. They had heavy weapons and countless places to hide. Even as the battle heightened, reports came in that numerous small ships were converging on the area. The armed forces did not have the equipment or manpower needed to intercept or sink all such craft. Aircraft were being scrambled, but it would take a while for them to arrive on the scene.
A number of helicopters tried to pick up small crates and bundles brought out by the combatants. Snipers took down the men. Heavy machine gun fire, and the concentrated firepower of a squad of infantry soldiers took down one copter. The other turned tail and fled.
Just as the small boats neared the container ship, a loud explosion rocked the larger vessel, causing it to list violently to one side. More explosions followed, this time involving the approaching group of small boats. At first the Egyptian forces thought that the extremist group was trying to sink the ship, to prevent anyone from taking possession of their precious cargo. But that didn't make any sense, unless the small boats were a rival group.
Smoke trails and missiles streaked away from the superstructure of the ship. But, where were they coming from? There was nothing there! The sun was bright in that direction. The missile must be coming from elsewhere else, passing by that point. What other explanation could their be.
For a moment, one soldier thought he saw the glowing outline of a giant man-like shape in the glare of the sun. He was quickly laughed down by all of his comrades.
Melissa did what she could with her one M9. She didn't know how much longer she could lay down effective fire without giving away her position. She had no idea how the Army might react. Faced with something they could not see and did not understand, they might assume it was a threat. Also, if anything happened to her ECS, she would be a sitting duck, and there would be a more concrete mystery for the authorities to pursue.
"Urzu 6, Urzu 7, come in. Do you read?"
"We read you, babe. Don't get your knickers in a not. Before you it, the amazing Kurz Weber will be on the scene. I've brought the not-so-amazing Sousuke Sagara with me as comic relief. Ask him about the girl."
"Cut the crap, Weber. What's your ETA?"
"I don't think I'll tell you...." Kurz' joking would earn him a royal beating. "You didn't say the magic word."
"Weber!"
"We are three to five minutes away, Sgt. Major. We need to move warily. There are heavy concentrations of troops on the move. We cannot use the roadway." Sousuke earned himself a ringside seat.
"Alright. I'm up to my eyeballs in shit here, boys. You get here in under ten minutes and I'll buy you each a beer. Kurz, you'll need to drink it through a straw after they wire your jaw back together."
"You see what I've been telling you about women, Sousuke?" Kurz switched to a channel that excluded Urzu 2. He hurdled a number of open-backed troop trucks, causing the men to wonder at the strange shadow passing overhead. "They get upset over nothing."
"I see. How long will beer keep?" Sousuke asked. "Does it taste good through a straw?" The wind of his passage blew the hat off of a startled Egyptian officer.
"Whose side are you on, Sousuke?" Sgt. Weber's M9 slid on some loose sand, causing it to teeter momentarily to one side. To one observer, it appeared as if a stand of palm trees bent over for no particular reason.
"And here I was about to tell you some news I just got in about Kaname...."
Souske's M9 zigged when it should have zagged. Kurz' statement had caused the young pilot to jerk his arms involuntarily. A small hut looked to have collapsed in on itself.
"Kaname?"Sousuke cursed the overanxious sound of his voice.
He needed to stay in control.
"Nope. Not until I know that you are on my side, not Melissa's." Kurz' voice was smug. He was having fun. The city was clearly visible. They would probably win those beers.
"But, the Sgt. Major..." Sousuke leaped over a string of camels, causing them to tug at their ropes, dragging men along the hot sands.
"Doesn't have time to tell you. I got the word straight from her, while you were busy playing the naïve little soldier. No matter. The information will wait until we sink that ship..... meet up with our barge..... and head on back up river." Kurz' laugh was infuriating. "Of course, it could take longer. We haven't heard from the team at Deir al-Madinah yet. If we have to head over there to lend a hand, it could be quite a while."
"But...."
"And who says if I can remember things that long. I might even get an official order not to divulge what I know. Wouldn't that be a shame. No rush though. No doubt you'll find out some day." Kurz exchanged clips in the M9's sniper rifle. He had serious stuff to deal with too.
It was time to play it close now.
The fastest way into the city was along the road. They would need to continue at top speed, avoiding the trucks and light armored vehicles heading in the same direction.
That was not the reason for Sousuke's silence.
"Sousuke?" Kurz' voice carried a hint of impatience.
Sousuke did not reply.
"Sousuke, are you still there?" Why wasn't that overly serious numbskull playing along?
"Yes." That was all that Sousuke said. He may not be as crafty as Sgt. Weber, but he was slowly learning how to pull on someone's strings.
"Well? Don't you want to know? I would think you'd be chomping at the bit!" Kurz sounded gleeful again.
"No." Sousuke's Arm Slaves passed a number of slower moving vehicles. He could see plumes of smoke rising into the sky. They were getting close.
"Come on Sousuke, you know you like her, at least a little bit. If you stay away too long, she might find another reckless destructive indestructible O-O-C young stud. Now, you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?" Kurz' laughter ended when he heard Sousuke's answer.
"It might be best for her." Sousuke's voice was flat.
The seconds of silence seemed like years.
"I don't think so, Sousuke. And I have a reason to feel that way. But, since you aren't eager to find out, I'm not going to tell you." Kurz was uncertain how to proceed. Sousuke sounded seriously depressed. More so than his usuall taciturn self.
"As you wish. It is not a problem." Sousuke was not in the mood for joking. Not that he was ever really in the mood for joking.
"Well, whether you know it not.... you got it bad Sousuke.... r-e-a-l bad. Now listen up. This one is for free. Even the great Kurz Weber has problems with the ladies sometimes. If you don't get things straight, the stuff inside of you might ruin your effectiveness as a soldier." Kurz was only being half-serious, but Sousuke's answer showed that he had been thinking along those lines already.
"I believe you are correct. It may not matter. I may be reassigned. Her reaction to me may nullify my usefulness."
"O, I don't think so, Sousuke old chum. In any case, I think you need some extensive woman therapy. There are a number of fine brothels in Cairo. I'll talk to Melissa. Maybe I can convince her to order you to get to know some of the ladies really well." Kurz chuckled. "Now what I mean?"
Sousuke did not answer. He began to sweat. Even though he was 98.9 per cent certain Kurz was joking.
"Of course, if you do come back to Da Danaan, Tessa will be waiting for you. If I clue her in, I bet she'd be glad to be the one who belly dances for you. Oh yeh!!!" Kurz began humming a famous Arabian burlesque tune.
"That...."
"I'll do it Sousuke. You know I'll will. So, do you want to know? Better hurry up. We're almost there. Do you want to know about Kaname...... or are you holding out for Tessa and the seven veils?" Kurz started whistling.
"You may tell me." The words came out in a rush. Sousuke clenched his teeth afterwards. He was playing right into his companion's hands.
"O, ho ho! First we need to talk price. Will you promise to protect me from the evil Dr. Fu Mao Chu?" Kurz sounded just like a riverboat huckster. He had a ready made sucker ready to buy his whole stock of snake oil.
"I cannot. She is my commanding officer."
"Too bad. If Tessa gets all excited and orders you to kiss her, what are you going to do? What if she takes those veils off first?" Kurz could just picture it. "7...... 6...... 5..... 4...... 3...... 2...... 1....... oh my my my!!!!"
"MY BEER!" Necessity is the mother of invention. "You may have my beer in addition to yours." Sousuke wasn't much into srinking anyway. But, as emotional drained as he felt, he might have made tonight an exception.
"Deal!"Kurz passed along the news.
Mithril had a number of operatives in New York City. Political pull arranged for one of them to arrange for an immediate job at Childrens' Hospital of New York-Presbyterian.
Ayame had gotten over her hurdles.
It looked as if she was going to be fine.