Chapter 10: The Secret Menace.
"Home sweet home" Ranma muttered, Okinawa Base loomed up in front of the helicopter. It brought back many memories, not many of which were happy. One glance over at the bag in the corner was enough to complete the story. But this time was different, it was worse. X-Com had always had enemies and any operative accepted death as a very real risk if not likelihood. The difference was that Hiroshi hadn't been killed fighting some alien invader, not had he died in some accident instead he had been killed by another man. Another man whose strings were being pulled ultimately by one of their own. Ranma had been forced to kill teammates in the past, it had been one of the hardest parts of the job, but Hiroshi hadn't fallen to alien control, he had stayed true to the end. An end that he didn't deserve and that was a direct result of a deliberate betrayal by one of the men he should have been able to trust with his life.
As the jet-copter touched down with the familiar hiss of cooling jets Ranma finally turned to look at the filth that had broken their trust. Armand was sat in a corner of the passenger bay, tied hand and foot and with a large purpling bruise on the side of his face. He also had Laura's foot on his chest. Nabiki was on the scrambler phone, as she had been since Ranma and Laura had thrown themselves out of the door over the South China seas. It was obvious that Armand had been embezzling more than funds and she was struggling to take possession of all his ill-gotten gains.
As they disembarked Dr Fraser was there to meet them, along with a detail from the security force, led by a black suited Dr. Kodachi. Dr Fraser invited them to join her in going to the briefing room.
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Meanwhile in the office Jack was facing his nemesis once more, a nemesis he thought he had left behind long ago. Once again dirty nappies invaded his life and turned his orderly existence into a smelly mess. "Tell me again why I'm doing this?" he asked his smirking wife.
"Because Jack its good practise," she replied
"Practise for what? Biohazard removal?" he retorted now holding the heavy bundle at arm's length. "I have paid my dues to society!" he added.
"What's that supposed to mean" she asked, a little off. He looked at her, sudden premonition of doom impinging.
"You. Want. A. Baby?" he said slowly. While in his mind he was screaming "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Maybe," she said simply. The feeling of doom only got worse.
"You want more than one?" he asked.
"Maybe?" she replied.
"What does 'Maybe' mean?" he asked. "Is that a 'maybe yes' a 'maybe no' or a 'maybe I'm just going to keep teasing you till you go insane maybe'"
"Hmmm. Definitely that one" she smiled.
"Which one" he asked. She just walked away
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As Sam walked into the briefing room Fraser was leading the trio from the plane into the same room from another door.
"Where's Jack?" Dr Fraser asked.
"In the crèche" she replied pointing behind her. Nabiki finally hung up and went in to see Kimiko and rescue the still grumbling Jack from the latest threat to Earth's security. Meanwhile Ranma made himself at home in one of the chairs, using the polished mahogany table as a rest for his boots. Laura copied him on the other side.
As soon as Nabiki arrived Jack beat a hasty retreat following his wife. He spotted the others sat at the table and then their boots. "Uh-hum," he said.
"Oh yeah," Laura replied, "Officer on deck," she added with a less than half hearted salute.
"Watcha Guv" added Ranma.
"I am your commanding officer" he pointed out as if they were unaware.
"Oh really" Ranma replied, "Nice to meet ya."
"Yeah" Laura added "do you come here often?"
"Mutinous dogs" Jack grumbled sitting down in his place at the table. And then pushing their feet away from his face. "So are you going to tell me what happened in Hong Kong?" Ranma looked at Laura, she shrugged.
"Okay" they said together.
"I knew there was a perk from being in charge" Jack replied.
"In the beginning was the world…" they started together. Jack growled loudly.
"Sorry I didn't catch that private" he said.
"Owch he cut me stripes off" lamented Laura, clutching at her chest.
"Me pips ooo me pips" sid Ranma falling to the floor.
"Clowns" Jack admonished.
"Er guys" Sam said interrupting the 'male bonding' "We do sort of have a debriefing to do."
"Thank you" Jack said waving a hand at her and looking at the others.
"Fine," Ranma started, "We followed your lead to Hong Kong…..
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Armand was scared, he was very scared indeed. Before he had secured his place at the head of Marsec he had been a logistics officer in this very base. Even before he arrived he knew where they were taking him, Kodachi's dungeon. The place had a reputation of being as close as you could get to hell and still be alive. It wasn't that the woman was going to hurt him, not physically anyway. Everyone knew that any pain Kodachi let you feel was only because she got off on it. No the dungeon was far worse than that. The Black Rose worked on your whole person, by the time she was finished with people they never wanted to leave their cells, even when she let you go she hurt you.
He had read her file, there was no way any regular service would have let this woman serve them, okay maybe the Israeli's but that was hardly a recommendation. She was clinically psychotic, unable to understand that what she did was wrong in any way, sexually deviant in ways that would have made the Marquis cringe. From the darkness of her own mind Kodachi had built an 'information retrieval' technique that would make a man beg for the rack. Worse still everyone knew that the woman would be enjoying every moment of the pain.
Armand, despite the air-conditioning, was sweating bullets by the time he was thrown into the cell. For a moment he lay there in the darkness, demons that scare small children suddenly seeming very real.
From the darkness came a light, a small flame. As armand watched it illuminated the outline of another person, and reflected off a pair of very intense eyes. Kodachi. Then she laughed and he started screaming.
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Jack was sat signing papers, with some of his closest friends around him. The thing was he was sat in the canteen doing it. Finally one asked the question that they all needed to know.
"Why are you doing that here?" Daniel asked.
"I leant Nabiki my office" he replied none too convincingly.
"There's plenty of space in the briefing room," Daniel pointed out.
"Ah but then she could see me" Jack replied.
"And?" asked Daniel.
"Two words," Jack explained "'sign this!' They seem to be her entire vocabulary."
"But" Daniel objected, "isn't that how you normally do your paperwork? Wait until somebody else does it for you I mean."
"Har Har" Jack replied with an ironical smile. "Trust me she's worse than usual. I actually checked one requisition, it was for nearly a ton of silly putty."
"What did she want silly putty for?" Daniel asked.
"I wondered that too," Jack replied, "she said something about limited but sufficient cohesion in microgravities and something about a super freeze crystal lock."
"Ah" said Daniel
"Don't even pretend you know what she was talking about" Jack replied.
"Sure I do" Daniel argued. There was moment's silence
"Well?" Jack asked. Daniel was silent, very aware that all his friends were looking at him.
"Oh come on Daniel" Sam said. "Micro-gravities?" she prompted.
"I get it!" Daniel exclaimed. "emergency sealant for non-atmosphereic vessels." Then he proceeded to get into a discussion with Sam about variations in the formula that would produce better qualities. Jack looked at them for a moment, picked up his papers and went to find somewhere else.
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Nabiki was sat in Jack's office, having 'borrowed' it while she was on base. She had left Ranma with Kimi and was trying to catch up on the paperwork she had missed during her too brief holiday. The fact that Jack had done very little of his own was something that Nabiki usually found useful but trawling through it now was really doing her nut.
Suddenly two hands were massaging her shoulders. With consummate skill they targeted the knots in her neck and began to work them free. She could feel hot breath across the nape of her neck and let out a contented moan.
"Thank you anata" she whispered.
"Any time anata" replied a husky voice that was definitely not Ranma's. Nabiki fought the urge to stiffen.
"Kodachi-chan" she said, deliberately using the diminutive. "Not that I object but what brought this on."
"A girl can't do something nice for a woman she 'admires" Kodachi replied, drawing out the last word into a breathy leer. A she spoke she ran a hand down Nabiki's side and started it up her front.
"Kodachi my husband will object" Nabiki said firmly. She could almost hear the pout.
"What if we asked him nicely" Kodachi purred.
"I don't think 'nice' is in your repertoire," Nabiki replied. "I take it Armand wasn't as diverting as you expected?" Kodachi moved away, obviously put out, and sat on the corner of the desk, leaning forward enough to display her well rounded 'character traits'.
Through her lashes she complained "I broke him."
"Broke how?" Nabiki said, concerned that the information he represented might have been lost. Kodachi's sudden smile warned her that she asked the wrong question.
"Well first I-" Kodachi said, madness burning in her eyes like a soul burning in a nighted pit.
"No" Nabiki interrupted, "In what way is he broken."
"Oh just the normal ways" Kodachi said with an expression somewhere between condescension and smugness. "He lies there begging me to hurt him, to hit him, to beat him" With each expression she swayed slightly forwards, relishing the words. "On his knees he begs me to let him serve me, to be used by me. However I desire" Kodachi finished, purring the last word.
Nabiki sat with raised eyebrow, knowing what was coming next and knowing there was little she could do about the madwoman on her desk.
"OHOHOOOHOOHHOOHOOHOHOOHO!" Doctor 'Demento' Kodachi laughed.
"The information" Nabiki asked.
"Oh its all on the transcript" Kodachi said, suddenly switching emotion without any sign of the shift. She pulled a few papers from deep in between her breasts, and handed them to Nabiki with a nonchalant sneer.
"Thank you doctor" Nabiki said taking the still warm papers and beginning to read. It did not look good, this went way beyond one greedy traitor.
"Saotome" Kodachi breathed, "I was hoping you could do something for me in return?"
Nabiki put the papers down, genuinely intrigued, Kodachi did not strike her as someone accustomed to having to ask favours. "Something you can't do yourself Kodachi-chan" Nabiki asked, eyes narrowing as she picked up her coffee.
"Indeed, despite my 'talents" Kodachi said waving a hand to display her body, "I have been unable to locate my plaything."
"You want me to find your toy" Nabiki asked taking another calculating sip.
"Yes she seems to have disappeared quite thoroughly" Kodachi pouted, batting her eyelids at Nabiki.
"And her name?" Nabiki asked while internally telling herself she should have known. The answer however took her completely by surprise.
"Ranko" Kodahi breathed like it was a prayer.