Part 2.

"Anything in the mail?" Goto looked up as he poured some tea into his cup
"anything mind numbingly exciting?" he sighed.

"More like mind numbingly boring" breathed Shinobu, adding to the sigh
"there's a letter for you from HQ and a promo from LaborExpo" she
then said handing Goto the large cardboard letter.

Goto looked at it, shook it a bit then put it up into the light.

"what's the problem?" Shinobu blinked "it's a simple A4 cardboard envelope"

"Nothings wrong, I just like treating these envelopes like Cereal boxes
that's all"

"whys that?"

"You never know whether you've got the special prize, or some crappy plastic figure"
Goto said with a smile as he took the letter (which was stapled to ten other
documents) out and glanced over it "heh whatcha know I got the plastic figure"
he grinned.

Shinobu just shook her head and looked down at the flyer above her current
work.

"Say's here I've got a babysitting job" Goto mumbled as he read down the
lines.

"Who with?" Shinobu asked, not looking up from a couple of orders she had to
sign, "you think the Nagasaki Police got their labors?"

Goto looked up with a grin "oh just some people from Transport Police in the
UK coming down"

This stopped Shinobu in her tracks. Goto got this job and not her?

"What?" was all Shinobu could manage.

"Vehicle Crime Department's first advanced Patlabor squad are coming down
for the Expo so it seems the UK and our boys have joined for a PR exercise"
Goto said, putting the document down "and I get to look after the actual squad"

"Thinking about it actually.." Shinobu said, looking away and at the notice board.

"Hey, hey" Goto blinked, yet in such a carefree manner "I'd say it was luck of the draw to get landed with this I guess" he shrugged "but its what we get paid to do I guess."

Shinobu stood and headed to the notice board "true, well I have a few inspections I need to do" she took the clipboard off of it's hook on the noticeboard, opened the hangar door and walked out to SV1's Patlabor hanger.

"Me too, talk to you later" Goto waved as he opened his draw to get his notes out of his desk.

About ten seconds later, Sakaki peered round the corner of the door "got a minute?"

"Sure do" Goto said as he waved over his tea to cool it down a bit "what's up?"

"Heh, just wanted to make sure you knew about the new maintenance regulations" Sakaki held up the new form
"otherwise you're gonna have to do the checks all over again."

"Again?" Goto smiled as he took a sip from the tea "hah, not even worth the effort these days."

"You say that Goto but the amount of Military labors that keel over just because they haven't been checked and signed off properly" Sakaki noted as he got another bit of paper out "just got the letter about Transport Police, is it just the Chief Mechanic they're sending over?"

"Nah" Goto yawned a bit as he fumbled behind him for the box of cigarettes
"We've got Detective Chief Inspector Gallagher, Detective Constable Williams
and Police Constable Trenchard who are going to arrive here"

"Wait that's only three" Sakaki blinked.

"Pardon?"

"Three, the CO, his subordinate and the Forward pilot" Sakaki explained "no
controller"

Goto raised an eyebrow as he read over the letter over again "oh, so you're
right, heh maybe they have manpower problems."

Sakaki shrugged "perhaps your right, anyway is it okay if I take the Chief
under my wing so to speak" Sakaki smiled "I haven't seen this much enthusiasm
in a mechanical recruit for years."

Goto looked over the Chief, DS Daniel "Macca" McVallaned's career sheet.

"Hmm, promoted to Sergeant after week on leaving Hendon Training
facility" Goto said, raising an eyebrow.

"He was destined for the UK's national crime squad by the sounds of it"
Sakaki said "but when he expressed his love in Labors, by helping to repair
a supposedly 'written off' labor when he revisited Hendon, they bumped him up
to Sergeant and sent him back for a two month refresher in Labor maintenance"

Goto looked up with a smile "Well sure he's yours, but you can't keep him understand?"

Sakaki turned with a chuckle"I won't don't you worry"

Goto yawned as he propped a cigarette into his mouth and
followed Sakaki out to the smoking lounge "geeze I think I need to visit my dealer
again" he said as he looked down at his empty Lucky Strike cigarette packet.

"Don't you mean Tobacco shop?" Sakaki smiled as he walked in front.

"I like to play the rebel" Goto grinned.

"Hey!" Asuma said as he looked at the notice board "look what we managed to
get holed up with"

"Wow, the UK's Vehicle Crime Unit is coming here?" Noa blinked.

"Wonder why they're coming all the way down here?" Ota shrugged as he drank
some tea.

Asuma hummed to himself for a momment, reading down the list "hey you think any of them can speak Japanese?"

"Doubt it" Kanuka replied from the couch as she watched the weather "they're
arrogant English, of course they don't speak Japanese"

"I'm sure they're not that bad Kanuka" Noa said thoughtfully.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were though!" Ota snorted.

"How would you know! Noa glared "why don't we stop ganging up on them and
give them a good welcome when they arrive hmm?"

"I'm fine with that" shrugged Kanuka.

"Me too" Asuma nodded.

Ota just glared back at Noa, thinking of saying something, then thinking better of it
, he just nodded.

"Fine with what?" Shinshi smiled as he walked in and hung up his coat "cold
but clear and sunny" he beamed.

"Oh about the UK Vehicle Crime Unit visiting for a week" Asuma said, handing
Shinshi the notice.

Shinshi read "great, always wanted to go to England, maybe they could give
me some tips eh?"

"See?" Noa said with a smile, motioning for the sheet "they can't be that
bad" she said as she read down the people who were due to arrive.

Shinshi sat down on the other side of the couch and clicked his neck as he
watched TV with Kanuka, Ota just went back to shining his shoes while Asuma
went back to his newspaper.

"Hey wait a sec!" Noa blinked "the last name, sounds familiar"

"What name?" Asuma said as he read over the TV guide before handing it over
to Shinshi who was motioning for it.

"PC Trenchard..that's it!" she smiled happily "he arrived a couple of months
before I left Waseda!"

"Really?" Asuma blinked as he looked up "how come? He's a UK officer isn't
he?"

"Yes but he was part of one of those part exchange thingies" Noa explained
"I felt really sorry for him in the first few weeks, he really did look lost,
him and his translation book" she giggled.

"What was he doing?" Ota looked around.

"Basic Labor operating, must've been in the Patlabor program" Noa shrugged
"So I KNOW he can speak some Japanese" she smiled.

"Heh" Ota chuckled "sink or swim was it?"

"By the looks of it yes" Noa shrugged as she pinned the notice back up "he
had a bit of a rough time at the start, being Ganjin and all"

"I could imagine" Asuma said as he read the rest of the paper.

"You think there could be some ulterior motive to all this?" Sakaki asked as
he sat down in the smoking lounge with Goto.

"Such as?" Goto said as he lit up stretching a bit as he sat down.

"Well I know for a fact that the European Labor trade show is next month
followed by several more major events much larger than LaborExpo here in Tokyo"
Sakaki explained "maybe they are here for some other reason. Why not just send a civilian sales team to the Expo?"

Goto nodded "That I'm not entirely sure of. I've got my ideas as to why they're here too. Whatever reason maybe it'll have something to do on the whole focus on how we're handling this terrorist threat.

"Heck even some Senate Observer arrived to make sure that the Babylon Project was on course!" Sakaki chuckled.

"Well the Babylon Project is really the experiment that the world is
watching right now" Goto replied "if all goes well, other cities might
do the same, London for example when their flood barrier becomes obsolete in 2012"

"True, true" Sakaki nodded. They sat there for a moment, looking out of the
window, out across the wasteland that was the landfill area. This quiet scene
was interrupted however by the sharp, loud coughing of Shinobu as she walked
into the Smoking area.

"I swear one of these days I'm going to die of lung cancer" Shinobu chuckled

Goto looked up and out of the door "what do you think about our British friends arriving here soon?"

Shinobu stood by the doorway, the sheer volume of smoke, tar and nicotine preventing her from making a decent entry "Law enforcement pure and simple" she said, arms crossed "why else send active police to Japan?"

Sakaki stood "hah! We could just spend all day here thinking conspiracy theories but I've got my checks to make" he headed off "I'll give you a call when everything is ready Goto."

"I'm just rebooting the OS now" said Asuma into the link with Noa.

"Okay" Noa replied as she looked over her status screen while dusting over
the other controls.

"And..." Asuma said, hand hovering over the return key in the command car
"update complete!" he said, tapping the return key to exit the set-up program.

"Good" said Noa as she slipped out of the cockpit having gone over it with
some polish and a dust buster "Do you think it looks okay?" she asked looking a
t Alphonse, her Alphonse.

Asuma smiled and nodded "yeah, she looks great", he looked over at the spare
bay, normally packed full of spare parts on Sakaki's order, currently being
emptied by the mechanical staff and being refitted for immediate use.

"Keep it going" Sakaki said to one of the Maintenance men as he waved in a
large fuel truck halfway into the hangar. The crew of the truck jumped out
and began connecting pipes to a newly placed temporary fueling station set
in the spare bay in the E-pen type layout of the Labor Hangar.

"Wow" Asuma blinked "what's with the temporary fuel tank system Mr. Sakaki?"
he asked.

"It's for the new Patlabor Asuma" Sakaki
winked "and boy is it an ugly one!"

"But why the Diesel tanks?" Asuma asked "I As far as I know, our Labors run
on battery power"

"Heh, this is the strange thing about it" Sakaki said turning once the fuel
transfer had safely started "I hear the UK military was in on it too so it
needed a more practical engine that could use all kinds of fuel so we're
tanking this refelling unit up with cheap Red Diesel"

"So the Transport Police's new Patlabor is powered by a diesel engine?" Noa
said as she stepped down from Alphonse "say, do you know what it looks like?"

"No idea" Sakaki shrugged "it was all made and assembled in the UK under the
Vickers Defence MG Rover partnership, all I've been told is to install this pumping system
that they dropped off at lunchtime" Sakaki said as he turned back to
the work at hand."

"How's the conversion going Sakaki?" Goto shouted from the balcony of the
office.

"Nearly done, the pumping equipment is all ready for use, the first UK
Mechanics arrive tomorrow!" Sakaki shouted back.

"Very good, I'll get everyone together for a full briefing tonight" Goto
yawned as he came down to do the checks.

After the checks were done, Goto returned to the office and fell onto his seat, he

checked the roster of people who were coming in the UK delegation tomorrow on his PC.

"Right, lets put this Interpol Co-operation treaty to the test eh?" Goto
smiled to himself as he leaned back and entered the Interpol resource program,
selected 'existing personnel' and typed in the search bar "DCI Harry Gallagher".

He quirked an eyebrow when the result came up. Born in Dundee, Scotland,
joined Strathclyde Police for two years before entering their CID department
as DC Gallagher. A year later he asked for (and got) a transfer into the
former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). From there after several more years
he managed to get selected for the highly dangerous job of being a
member of the RUC's Special Branch.

But that was where the file really ended. From his time in Strathclyde all
the way to his days in the local RUC CID department, there was a string
of successful operations, case summaries and arrests. But there was nothing
for his time in Special Branch. After that it said he was moved to Transport Police.

Goto leaned back. "He has had quite a bit of experience under his belt" he
mused "so why the lack of success?"

"How did the inspections go?" Shinobu asked as he opened the door.

Goto, wearily shaken out of his mindset looked up "Very good, managed to
get Noa off of that labor wax kick"

Shinobu smiled "heh, I feel for her, she really has a love for these machines"

Goto thought for a second then said "Thats why I can get the best out of her."

Goto then went back to thinking about Gallagher "he must've done something" he
thought.

"When are you going to brief your section about our visitors?" Shinobu
asked.

"Well I put a notice up in the main room" Goto shrugged "I said I was going
to brief them tonight"

The floodlights were on as the last of the Vickers MG Rover equipment
arrived at SV2, Goto looked outside of the hanger before turning back to the
assembled staff of SV2 (seated of course).

"Well you probably all know by now what's happening" Goto said as he peered
down at the roster sheet, a large red question mark was next to Gallagher's name.

He looked over the staff "well I think the best thing to do would be to
assign a guest to a group of you" Goto added.

Ota blinked "you mean you're dumping the babysitting job on us?"

"Well theoretically...yes" Goto said quietly "but anyway as there is only
two people who will be paired off I'm gonna do it this way" Goto said as he
raised the sheet up.

"Detective Sergeant McVallened and his team of Mechanics will be placed under
Mr. Sakaki's control" Goto read "and finally PC Trenchard, as he is the only
pilot they have at the moment, will be placed with Officers Izumi and Clancy"

Noa blinked and looked at Kanuka. Kanuka had a frown on her face, maybe she
didn't want to coach another newbie? None the less she looked straight ahead.

"Officer Azuma will co-operate with Detective Constable Williams over
advanced Labor command methods and..." Goto said as he looked down at his
roster sheet "that's about it" he smiled faintly "any questions?"

"What about me sir?" Ota asked putting his hand up.

Goto took one, long look at Ota then smiled "just tag along I guess"

This nearly sent Ota off of his chair as Kanuka stood up "May I see you
after the briefing sir?" She asked calmly.

"Sure" Goto shrugged "they will be touching down at Haneda tomorrow at 1pm so
just look a little sharper than you lot usually are"

"What does he mean by 'usually'?" Shinshi muttered.

"Everyone dismissed!" Goto said as he picked up his tea and took a sip
before walking to his office.

"So" Goto said as he leaned out of the window with a cigarette, the wind
thankfully blowing the smoke and the smell away from the building "what did
you want to talk about?"

Kanuka sighed "I've had some bad experiences with our colleagues in England
and I don't feel that I would be able to get on with them"

Goto turned around "what makes you think that way?" he asked as he threw the
cigarette out of the window after seeing Shinobu walk past the office door.

"We had one of these exchanges a couple of years ago when I was in the NYPD"
Kanuka said "they were rude, dirty, very sexist and even on a couple of times
racist" she straightened her tie "I was very angry that they were all let off
with only a sending home"

Goto listened and sat down and looked up at her with a wry smile "you think
all Brits are like that?" he asked "even the Scots?"

"Especially the Scots sir" Kanuka said then she stopped "no, I don't think
that, that's just generalizing, I just had a rough experience with them that's
all sir and I don't want to risk a repeat performance"

"Why do you think you were selected to look after PC Trenchard?" Goto said,
leaning back on his chair.

"To make sure that him and Officer Izumi do not get into trouble?" Kanuka
answered, the anger in her voice gone now.

"Well that yes" Goto said "the reason why I selected you and Officer Izumi
and not Ota is because Izumi has the talent to influence Trenchard and you have
the experience to teach him how to handle his Labor properly, like you did with
Izumi ages ago" Goto explained.

Kanuka nodded.

"Now if you feel you can't stand to be near our British guests during their
week's stay then tell me and I'll sort something out, but until then you are
going to be assigned to that constable, do I make my self clear?" Goto said
in his usual quiet manner but this time it was firm.

Kanuka nodded again "yes sir". She saluted, turned and walked to the office
door.

"Oh Officer Clancy" Goto called.

"Yes sir?"

"When they do arrive, try and get on with them, give them a chance?"

Kanuka nodded, turned and walked out of the office.

Goto sighed as he looked over his desk. Fresh reports on the successful
operations of Gallagher, he might have seen him before in days past.

"Hey Goto" Shinobu said as she walked into the office with two cups of tea
"guess we're in for a nightshift tonight."

"Yeah" Goto said as he looked outside, the silence might've been deafening to a
restless person.

"Anything wrong?" said as she put down a cup of tea on Goto's desk.

Goto shook his head "nope, just something about this whole British thing"

"How so?" Shinobu asked as she sat down "what makes you think that?"

"Well for a start they're meant to be over here to learn from us on advanced
Patlabor tactics and to show off their new Labors right?" Goto said as he looked
at yet another file.

Shinobu nodded.

"Then why have they fielded such an under strength team?" Goto asked "even their
existing Gorilla team in London has two units with backups so why have we just got
a Commanding officer, an investigating officer and two constables who are literally
fresh out of the Academy?" Goto explained.

"Ask the Brass that" Shinobu shrugged "you know something is going on though"

Goto shrugged back and sipped his tea.

"Hey Nagumo could you pass the LaborExpo flyer from off of the notice board please"
Goto asked. Shinobu shrugged and turned to unpin the flyer.

"Even if there is something going on" Shinobu said as she walked over to Goto's desk and
put the flyer down "It's probably in aid of a good cause"

"So why haven't they told us then?" Goto wondered out loud as he looked at the phone
"I guess it wouldn't hurt if I gave Gallagher a call and asked him up front?"

"It's up to you" Shinobu said as she sipped her tea.

Goto didn't say anything as he looked blankly down at the phone.