For a few minutes each member of the team searched the safe house for any evidence that would either identify the terrorists or reveal more about their mission and origin. Despite Patrick catching them in the act of cleaning up their location, investigating what they left behind provided few answers: their equipment was generally UN military surplus or older, none of the bodies had identification although their prints and DNA would be taken by others as part of the investigation, and the van in the garage was wearing stolen license plates from another vehicle that was reported destroyed years earlier. The memory chips in their satellite radio had been wiped as well, meaning the destination of the signals was not immediately available either.

There had been a fire started in the fireplace when the terrorists had begun to sanitize, and Olivia searched the ashes for anything revealing. She came up with one very unfortunate result.

"Aw, damn!" she exclaimed as she showed the burnt remains of what was likely the letter the cult had passed onto Rei. There was little left except a one-inch shred with edges burned to a crisp, and no remaining writing on it. "It was probably the first thing they destroyed."

"Ah, shit!" said Patrick, grabbing the scrap out of Olivia's hand. He flipped it over, hoping for any trace of the message no matter how small or insignificant, but the whole of it had been burned away. "These guys were pros."

"No doubt," Olivia replied. "But how did they get that way? None of these guys have been ID so far beyond just being regular dudes from Japan. No former soldiers or cops, or anything like that."

"Something big is behind this," mused Patrick. Dylan returned to the two of them with items he had scavenged from a trash bag in the kitchen that had not yet been burned by the cultists. "Well, maybe we'll find out by what they were eating." He dumped the contents between the three of them on the living room floor of the house.

The trio of agents sorted through the trash, finding a large number of disposable eating utensils, recyclable plated and cups, and thrown away scraps of food, but nothing particularly noticeable except for one thing. Patrick picked up one of a half-dozen of instant ramen packages, all from the same brand.

"Hmm," he said to himself as he examined this. Maybe he was still shell-shocked but at least he could recognize a clue when he saw one. The ramen package was entirely in Japanese, unusual for a food item in the USA where the labeling at least had to be partly in English. There was also a very familiar cartoon character on the package, a black bear with rosy red cheeks that Patrick knew he had seen before.

"Kunamoto," said Patrick. "Kunamoto ramen. From Kunamoto."

"Where the hell is that?" asked Dylan.

"Kyushu, southern Japan. It's close to Nagasaki. This wasn't bought here in the 'States, they brought them with them."

"I guess even a cultist terrorist has to eat," quipped Olivia.

"Yeah, and this is kind of a strange choice. It's a regional flavor, not all that popular in Japan itself." Patrick looked at both sides of the package and saw that it was completely intact. Somehow it seemed important. "Let's get all of these, maybe we can trace it back to where they bought it."

"No stone left unturned," said Dylan as he picked up more of the packages. Keeping one, Patrick turned and walked outside. He needed to check on his witness.

As he exited the safehouse, he saw David kneeling on the street outside, just past the row of armored vehicles some of the Alliance QRT had come rolling in on. There was a helicopter landed on the ground about twenty-five feet away to his left and another that was orbiting above, but his attention was focused on the student. Zummy was crouched over in the street and vomiting profusely. Erin was kneeling next to him, her hand on his back in comfort. Patrick walked over and Erin broke off and ran towards him. She embraced him when he reached her.

"Thank God you're safe!"

"Yeah," he told her. "Pretty freaking scary."

Erin wiped off blood from his face, as some of the shrapnel had nicked him. "Are you okay?"

"Just singed. Training saved me."

"What about Rei?"

"It looks like she left hours ago. We're now thinking this was just a staging point, and another group took her out on the water and then got picked up by an aircraft."

"Oh, no!" Erin gasped. "How will we find her?"

"All these guys are Japanese, and they talked about taking her 'home,'" said Patrick. "I'm pretty sure they meant Japan. She's still got like a ten or twelve hour lead on us, so she might be there soon if they're flying her over."

"Then that's where we gotta go," concluded Erin. Patrick motioned towards the vomiting boy on the ground. "I guess he's okay."

"Holy shit, Patrick. He nearly got killed! What were you thinking?!"

"We needed to find out if he's on their side or not. After that I'm pretty sure he's not." Erin didn't immediately reply but stared daggers at Patrick. "Okay, okay," Patrick protected to his sister, raising his hands in defense. "Hey, I promised he wouldn't get killed and there he is. At least we know we can trust him now."

"Hell of a way to find out," she remarked and then went back to David, who was finally recovering. "Hey," she grabbed a bottle of water from her hand bag and gave it to him. "Take this. Just sip it, don't gulp it down." David gulped it anyway and spat back a bunch of the water with an ugly cough.

"You all right, kid?" Patrick asked him.

Zummy didn't reply at first but just nodded. "I can't believe…I just did that. Did you really…kill that guy?"

"He had it coming," replied Patrick coldly. "But at least you're still in one piece."

"Remind me not to sell candy bars for you again," said Zummy. Patrick laughed hard when he heard that, sighing in relief.

"Dude, you've got a sense of humor!" he said out loud. "You'll be alright yet!"

After making sure Zummy wasn't wounded and Erin was with him, Patrick placed another call to Kaji.

"Find anything?" the director asked him.

"At least six unopened packages of Kunamoto ramen. The one with the bear on it."

"Excellent!" said Kaji. "Take photos and send them to us, be sure we can get the lot number off the package. They bought them in Japan most likely."

"Probably. There wasn't anything else we had, and they cleared the memory from their satellite phone. The letter was burned."

"Whoever taught them fieldcraft is very skilled," said Kaji. "We have to assume the top leader is someone from a major intelligence agency, or something like that."

"What do you want us to do, sir? Go to Japan?"

"Correct, the game is moving here. Also, what about your witnesses?"

"Diego the loverboy gave us descriptions of two of the men. Both of them are now dead, but they look like they match. Beyond that I don't think he knows much. But the kid with the Eva-Chan group might know more."

"Do you think he's connected with the cult?"

"No, I vetted him pretty thoroughly," said Patrick, leaving out the details of how he did it. "Just a very interested third party."

"Bring him in with you," said Kaji. "The G650 is already on it's way to pick you up."

"Great, at least we can fly in comfort."

Leipzig, Germany

Shinji Ikari sat on his music stool, cello in one hand and bow in another, as he worked his piece in the center of his dormitory apartment. With a scheduled performance coming up in a few days in Japan he wanted to be ready and able to debut a new arrangement. However the work was coming along in fits and starts, and he often paused to scribble notes upon the music sheet placed on the stand in front of him, all corrections he would try to incorporate into the final product.

He played another spread and liked the way it came out, and continued on it to the next page, quickly turning the music sheet over and then pulling the bow again. Just have to finish this one set, that'll be a relief! He continued, letting his mind focus on the music as Shinji closed his eyes and imagined the notes bouncing in the air in the rhythm he wanted. Suddenly there was a loud slamming noise and his mental image of notes resulted in all of his floating musical symbols raining down on the ground with a crash.

That was a loud slam this time, she must be ticked off about something.

As footsteps were heard nearby, Shinji carefully set down the cello and bow and bounded to the kitchen to grab an iced tea from the fridge. He knew he needed to stay just out of engagement range and didn't go to the foyer until he heard the other shoe drop, which happened quite literally as a black ladies shoe went flying about two feet from his head.

"Stupid, stupid, idiot!" Asuka cried out. "Who the hell does he think he is!" Other objects followed the shoe, as Asuka tossed her handbag towards the foyer wall, passing by Shinji by perhaps a foot from his head. Seeing Asuka now hoist her violin case, Shinji quickly intervened, something he had become used to by this time.

As Asuka was about to toss the violin case Shinji quickly grabbed the handle and lifted it from her hands, offering her the tea from his other hand. Asuka's face wore an expression of anger, her cheeks were flushed red and her bright red hair was tussled all over.

"Welcome back," Shinji said in a somewhat cheerful tone. "What did Mueller do this time?"

"He fucking bumped me back to second row! Second row!" Asuka answered with a growl. "You gotta be kidding, right?"

"Why did he do that?"

"Hell if I know," she told Shinji, then took a giant swig out of the bottle of tea. Gulping it all down, she let out a relaxed "aaahh" and then burped.

"Some bullshit about not matching with the rest of the strings set. I mean, come on! If I'm in the front row it's not me that has to match with everyone else, it's everyone else that has to match with me!"

Shinji carefully set down Asuka's violin case on a nearby table. "I think he just wanted to give you a reason to try a little harder."

"Ha!" she replied, tossing the tea bottle into a trash can about two meters away. "Why doesn't Herr Mueller just flunk me out of select orchestra while he's at it." She stood there, her hand on her hips and thought for a moment.

"Maybe I just bail on this place. Getting sick of it anyway."

"We go to Japan tomorrow," Shinji reminded her. "I sure you just need the break."

"I suppose," she told him, then managed a small smile. "At least we can hang out together somewhere and not be bothered by all of these losers."

"Kyushu's got nice weather this time of year," Shinji told her. "And after we're done with the concerts we can get a boat and head out somewhere nice."

"Yeah," she said, finally recovering from her hanger. "That would be nice." Asuka walked over to where Shinji was standing and put her arms around his head. When they first met Asuka was a couple of centimeters taller than Shinji, but three years later he had grown much taller than her, so reaching for him meant Asuka needed to lean up on her toes. Shinji wrapped his arms around her.

"I just want to get out of here, and…you know," she told him.

"I'd like nothing better," Shinji replied, and Asuka closed her eyes, came in, and gave him a slow kiss.

She pulled back, still smiling, and was about to go for more until she remembered something. "Oh! I got the mail for you downstairs." Asuka let go of Shinji and walked over to recover her handbag off the floor. Reaching inside she pulled out a letter in a plain white envelope. "This was in it."

Seeing the letter, Shinji quickly reached over and grabbed it. He turned it over and saw the handwriting, done in extremely neat cursive English. There was no return address but he knew who it was from. Shinji found a letter opener and sliced open the envelope, and Asuka stood by closely as he pulled out a single folded piece of paper from inside.

"She finally broke her silence," said Asuka. They both knew about Rei's recent medical issues and Shinji had tried to contact her several times in the last few days by phone, text, and email but Rei had not replied.

The outside of the paper read "Onii-chan and The Second," written in Japanese. Shinji quickly opened up the folded paper to see the inside message. It consisted of only two lines of characters.

I'M SORRY I COULDN'T DO IT

FAREWELL

Rei had written Sayanora, a formal term for goodbye in Japanese. She hadn't ever ended letters to Shinji like that before.

"Farewell!?" exclaimed Asuka. "What's she gonna do?"

"This is bad," Shinji said under his breath. He looked all over the letter to see if there was anything else written but there was nothing.

"Call Misato," he told Asuka, while he took his own phone and tried Rei's mobile number. It's been shut off the last few days, but I need to reach her right now. Dialing Rei's satellite phone, Shinji waited as it rang and expected it to go back to voice mail like so many times before. But this time it was picked up after one ring.

"Hello? Rei!?" Shinji shouted into the phone.

"Shinji!" replied Patrick Forrestal over the line.

"Where's Rei?"

"Please tell me she's with you," said Patrick.

"No. I got this letter today. From her."

Shinji had Patrick's full attention. "What did it say?"

"It said 'I'm sorry I couldn't do it' and then 'farewell.'"

There was silence at the other end for a moment, then Patrick said. "Are you sure it's from her?"

"Yeah," Shinji confirmed. "It's her handwriting, no doubt."

"Send me photos of the letter, including the envelope," Patrick requested, "then ask one of your security detail to get it to us fast."

"Patrick, what happened?"

"She disappeared last night," he answered. "But there's something really fucked up about this. Shinji, red alert on this one. Someone has an unhealthy interest in us pilots."

"I get it. What can we do?"

"If you hear anything give me a call right away, I'm going full steam on this to find her and what happened. Prayers are appreciated."

"Will do," Shinji told him. "I'm supposed to be going to Japan tomorrow, I'll check in with Misato but if there's anything else we can do to help let me know."

"I'll do it. Hey, I got to go board a plane right now but I'll keep you updated when I can. I'll be holding onto Rei's phone but call me on my own line, I need to keep that one open. Got it?"

"Thanks," said Shinji. Patrick then hung up Rei's phone, and Shinji sat down on the music stool in shock as he listened in on Asuka talking over to Misato, who was explaining what she knew so far to her.

"Got it," Asuka replied. "If we hear anything else we'll call right away. Bye."

"Did she know?" Shinji asked her. "About Rei?"

"She got the same letter you did," answered the redhead. "There's more trouble too. You remember that big stupid robot that got loose, just before I first came to Japan?"

"Yeah," recalled Shinji. "Jet Jaguar or something like that?"

"It's on the loose again."

Shinji was direct. "Do they need us to pilot EVA again?"

Asuka didn't directly answer, but instead softly put her hand on Shinji's chest. "You know our time's over on that, right?"

"But who's going to pilot EVA if Rei's not…"

"Don't forget they still got at least one active pilot besides her," Asuka reminded him. "If it's just a runaway robot like last time I'm sure they'll be okay." Shinji nodded in acceptance and then his mind went back to the letter. "Why did Rei run away?"

"Obviously she finally freaked out," said Asuka. "It was going to happen sooner or later."

"I don't think so. I know she was troubled but…" Shinji took the letter and read it again. "What did she mean by that? 'I couldn't do it?'"

"Baka," said Asuka. "She means she couldn't be human."

Alliance Intelligence Command Center, Tokyo-3, Japan

A crowd of agents, technicians, operators, specialists and others were huddled around a set of flat LED screens inside of the Alliance Intelligence's command cell as Kaji scanned the screens. Since bursting out of its hanger 36 hours earlier, Jet Alone had not been spotted by anyone including Alliance intelligence and this had made him wonder if the unit had simply marched straight into the ocean and sank. Within the last few minutes however Alliance sources had picked up chatter from both military and civilian sources that JA had been seen on the island of Kyushu. There was enough activity to confirm something was going on and Kaji had directed his staff to put maximum effort on locating JA within the southern island.

"Got something from the Air Force," called out one operator inside of his work cell, and others quickly jogged over to get more detail.

Standing a few feet away from the first row of staff work cells, Kaji kept his eyes on the main screen above, with video feeds of the major Japanese media agencies playing on either side. The news about Jet Alone escaping had gotten to the public already despite the Tokyo-2 government's best efforts, and this was both helping and hindering efforts to locate and apprehend the giant robot.

Deputy director Stephenson walked to Kaji's side to monitor the crisis. "Anything from the government?" Kaji asked him.

"Nothing productive, I'm afraid," Stephenson replied. "As you know they're just in office after a major election campaign to increase 'transparency,' and naturally the first way they react to a catastrophe is to try and keep it quiet. They've mobilized the military, however."

"Have they contacted NERV yet?"

"No, and there doesn't seem like there's a plan to either. This doesn't bode well, I'm afraid."

Kaji mused over the situation. "I could see that they want to be seen as competent, and not requiring outside help to manage a crisis. It seems we might not have much choice but to let they at least try it their way."

"Contact confirmed!" the operator who was monitoring the Japanese Air Force called out. "They've got visual on JA!" He immediately posted a relay of live vide coming from jets that were approaching the giant robot as it walked around.

"Location?" asked Kaji.

"Kasuga," answered the controller. "It's headed right towards the air force's southern command base."

An interesting move. "What do you think?" he asked Stephenson.

"It's certainly not a random path. If it's being pursued by the air force and if JA is acting autonomously, it might be looking for a way to stop the air intercepts by destroying the command post. Kasuga controls all of the radar and sensor arrays in Southern Japan."

"Let's see what it does," said Kaji, and both men looked towards the main screen.

On the video there were split screens taken from different video feeds, one was from a fighter jet, a F-35AJ, that was closely following JA from a few kilometers away. Another video was of the tactical display from the air force's own network, being fed from a AWACs aircraft flying high above another thirty kilometers away. Still more video came from drones and VSTOL gunships that were keeping pace with the robot. Jet Alone continued a solitary, fast-paced march directly towards the Japanese Air Force's base directly ahead of it.

"Any idea why no one's spotted JA until now," asked Kaji. Another young man, a Japanese of short stature and gigantic round eyeglasses seated next to the Air Force desk operator, answered. "No one has a definitive answer," he said. "JA was supposed to have both stealth characteristics and an electromagnetic screen that made radar intercepts difficult, but there wasn't any eyeball contact with JA up until about twenty minutes ago."

"All that way from Old Tokyo to Kyushu without being seen by anyone," mused Kaji aloud. Something's really not right about this…

"The Air Force is queuing up their attack run," said the controller. "Projected at two Thunderbolts and two F-35s firing concussion-type missiles with the intention to trip JA off it's feet before it reaches the Kasuga base and city."

"How will that affect the reactor?" asked Sasuki Ooi, who was standing a few feet from Kaji and monitoring the battle while listening on the phone for the other Alliance Intel operation in Boston.

"They plan to use a tanker aircraft to drop liquid nitrogen on JA once it's down," said the technical specialist. "This cools down the outside of the containment shell so in case of any breach they can avoid a critical mass."

"Let's hope it works," said Kaji.

From the screens the whole staff in the control room followed as the Japanese Air Force attempted to apprehend the runaway robot. The audio from the JAF command radio channel was also relayed through the control room, so that the Alliance people could follow along everything that was happening.

From the tactical display they could see two arrow units representing F-35 fighters speeding towards JA, and then four additional arrows representing the missiles they were firing. Over the battle channel audio, a pilot called out "MISSILES AWAY! MISSILES AWAY!"

"Forty-five seconds to impact," called out the cell operator. "JA is not taking evasive action." Indeed, the robot just kept walking towards the base at full steam.

"Twenty seconds," the operator called out.

Why isn't JA doing anything? Thought Kaji.

"Ten seconds!"

"We have an energy blip on the unit," reported another controller who was monitoring JA with the Alliance's own drone. "Powering up something,"

"Five seconds!"

As they watched the live video, a series of light flashes came from Jet Alone's rear and towards the missiles that were rushing towards it. There were four neat explosions in the sky about five hundred meters apart.

"All four missiles engaged by laser," called out the cell operator.

Now that's a surprise. "By laser? Was JA armed?"

The technical specialist's voice got emotional and flustered as he replied the answer. "It's…it's not supposed to be! JA is a prototype, no weapons were mounted on it during it's initial test run three years ago!"

"Then how did they get there?" asked Kaji, his voice still firm. He needed answers.

On the audio the staff could hear the panicked call-out of the Japanese Air Force crews, now realizing that Jet Alone was armed and ready for combat.

"WHITE SIX TO WHITE BASE. WHITE SIX TO WHITE BASE. TARGET IS ARMED AND ENGAGING."

"WHITE BASE TO WHITE SIX. SAY AGAIN?"

"TARGET HAS LASER AND IS ENGAGING!"

"WHITE BASE TO WHITE FIVE AND SIX. PLEASE DO FLY BY AND CONFIRM."

"WHITE SIX TO BASE, WHITE FIVE IS DOWN!"

Kaji's team continued to monitor the battle, as Jet Alone began to fire its laser on aircraft and missiles attacking it. Within a minute a F-35 was shot down as were two Thunderbolts and two more drones. Jet Alone continued its march towards Kasuga Air Base.

"WHITE SIX TO WHITE BASE REQUEST REIFORCEMENT OVER."

"WHITE BASE TO WHITE SIX INTEL REPORTS TARGET IS NOT ARMED. WHO IS FIRING ON YOU?"

"IT'S THE FUCKING ROBOT YOU MORON!" There was another explosion immediately after this statement. The controller, his voice elevated, reported what had happened. "F-35s are both down!" he said. "JA is closing in on the base."

"Move our drone out of JA's firing range," ordered Kaji. He turned again to Stephenson. "Get the Alliance military command on the line, tell them we need assistance."

"Yes, sir," said the vice director and he promptly moved over to the secure communications cell, while Kaji continued to monitor the battle.

"WHITE BASE TO HQ, WHITE BASE TO HQ. EVACUATE! EVACUATE. TARGET IS BEARING DOWN ON YOU."

"What's happening?" asked Kaji.

The controller continued to relay the giant robot's movements. "JA continues to close in. As this rate it'll be at the airbase within one minute."

"And the Air Force's response?"

"Another four fighters have been dispatched, but JA has now entered residential parts of the city. They don't have yet clearance to engage."

"That's stupid," commented Kaji. "What can JA to do to the base?"

"It's so big that he'd likely just stomp on it," said the technical expert. "JA is so large that if they can't immobilize it you're probably have to resort to N2 warheads to destroy it, and that would be….messy."

One the large monitor, Kaji and the others watched as their own drone gained altitude, trying to avoid the robot while keeping within camera range. By this point JA was already through the base gates. The staff watched as dozens of Japanese air force personnel streamed out of the main control building, jumping into vehicles or running on foot to avoid being trampled over. To Kaji it was comically remining him of giant monster films of the 1950s and 60s, only this time it was real.

"Air Force is coming in with reinforcements!" shouted the controller. "They've been given orders to intercept!" Four JAF F-35s launched a fusillade of missiles as they desperately tried to stop Jet Alone from destroying the base. It was all for naught, as JA promptly reached for the giant dish array on top of the command building and ripped it off, then tossed the dish towards the fighters. It managed to collide with two of them and graze a third, resulting in three explosions as the remnant of the dish slammed into the town below. The fourth fighter dove on the unit, attempting to penetrate it's head with its cannon but failed to do so, and JA then shot it down with it's laser. Finally the robot smashed into the command building. Crushing it to pieces with its feet, JA marched over until there was little left than flattened, crumpled metal, and then proceeded to the giant fuel storage tanks that were a thousand meters away.

The robot stopped for a moment and looked above, directly at the camera lens of the drone that was filming it. It pivoted for a moment and then shot a laser beam right at the drone. The last thing seen was a bright red flash followed by static.

"Drone is down!" called out the controller.

"Do we have anything else in the vicinity?"

"Global Hawk is still operational at 20,000 meters," replied another controller.

"Switch video" ordered Kaji, and the second controller switched the Global Hawk's live camera to the master video display. At high altitude the larger drone's camera view wasn't as clear as the first drone, but JA was large enough to make out on the screen and they watched as it reached the fuel tanks. All it took was one shot of it's lasers and the entire base went up in flames. The explosions of the fuel storage put up so much smoke and soot that they lost sight of JA, and most of the base.

"Reacquire," ordered Kaji. Several controllers of the drones and other assets worked to find JA again among the destruction, but none were successful.

"Unable to, sir," the Global Hawk controller reported. "I've got visual but JA is gone from the scene!" On the screen the drone was able to penetrate the smoke left behind by the massive explosions, revealing the wreckage of destroyed storage tanks and destroyed buildings and aircraft everywhere, but no gigantic robot was seen.

"We've lost it, sir," said the controller.

"its gone!" said another. "Nothing on EMS spectrum at all! It's like it completely disappeared!"

"Technical?" asked Kaji, already knowing the likely answer.

"Stealth characteristics have been fully activated," replied the expert. "That's also not in the original prototype specs but this unit is now fully functional. And it's still out there."

Kaji grasped his hand in a fist, trying to calm himself and contemplate his next move. There really wasn't much else to do other than make one call. "Communications," he ordered, "Get NERV on the line, right now."

Alliance Base North, Cambridge USA

A couple of hours later Patrick again drove the SUV, this time towards Alliance Base North. Erin was again seated next to him in the front, and David Zumwalt in one of the rear seats. Zummy had managed to recover from his introduction-by-fire and was now keenly interested in what was going on.

"So what happens now?" he asked the twins. "Did you find out where she went?"

Patrick replied without looking back as he drove through freeway traffic on his way to the base. "Odds are it's Japan. The cult is from there, and she was there too, so that's gotta be where they're headed now."

"You don't think they took her somewhere else?" asked Erin.

"That guy said home. Her home or his, it's the Land of the Rising Sun. So off we go."

"Well," said Zummy, "I really hope you guys find her. It's been a lot of excitement for one day."

"Oh, but we like you Zummy," said Patrick facetiously. "So much so that we're going to take you with us."

"Wh…what?!"

Erin was surprised too. "He's coming along?"

"The agency wants to talk with him," said Patrick. "All about that Eva-chan thing."

"But…but, I've got school!" Zummy protested. "I can't go to Japan now!"

"Dude," Patrick looked back at him as he changed lanes in the SUV to exit the freeway. "Your study buddy may have been kidnapped by a bunch of bloodthirsty cultists. You don't want to help find her?"

"Sure, but…what the hell would I know about that?"

"I'm willing to bet someone was using Eva-chan to get info on the pilots and there whereabouts. Also, you were the last friendly person to see her. So you and some of my pals from work are going to have a very nice, long chat while we start looking around."

Zummy was still both shocked and skeptical. "How can I talk about Eva-chan if it's down?"

"Don't worry," said Erin. "I'll be sure you can get to it. I've already got it installed on the virtual MAGI so I can access it from Tokyo-3 when we get there."

"We're going to Tokyo-3!? Seriously?"

"Seriously. Plane's gonna take all three of us there just as soon as we get to the airfield."

Patrick drove the SUV to the security gate of Alliance Base North and showed his badge. The gate guard promptly let him through and pointed where to take the vehicle. In a couple more minutes Patrick pulled over on the edge of the tarmac, where a white-painted Gulfstream G650ER was parked on the runway. There was another black SUV parked nearby, and both Dylan and Olivia got out as Patrick stopped his own vehicle a few feet away. He and the others exited the vehicle, and Patrick tossed the keys of the SUV to Dylan as they walked over.

"See?" Patrick told him. "Back in one piece."

"James Bond you're not," Dylan replied. "Thankfully."

"No comments on that score," quipped Olivia. She then motioned to three duffel bags sitting next to her on the ground. "Hope you don't mind that we packed for you guys. They told us you needed to be back up in the air immediately."

"I'm okay, most of my stuff wasn't even unpacked. How about you?" Patrick asked Erin. Before she could ask, Olivia answered the question. "I put in about three days worth of clothes. Nothing too formal, mostly athletic-type stuff, plus a makeup kit and what seemed like your regular bathroom things."

"I'll trust you got it right," said Erin. "I can always get stuff around Tokyo-3 if you missed anything."

"What about me?" asked Zummy. Olivia motioned to a third bag.

"Well, kid, we took the liberty of going into your place and packing what looked like your normal outfits, plus your toothbrush. You should have what you need in there."

"How would you know?"

"We know," Dylan answered.

"What about my notebook computer?"

"Oh, I put that in miss Erin's bag here," said Olivia. "You'll get it back…eventually."

"But what about my classes?" Zummy continued to protest. "If we're gone for days then…"

Olivia had that planned too. "Already took care of it. Chanceller Galletner was kind enough to help us out here and give you a pass for the semester. Nothing to it."

Patrick had already grabbed his bag and headed towards the jet, which now had it's side hatch open and a stairway gantry lined up for boarding. "Thanks a lot guys! You're gonna keep at things here?"

"Yes, sir," said Dylan. "We'll keep processing today's scene for evidence and also do a full search around old Boston for wherever they kept that boat we think they had."

"Best of luck guys," added Olivia. "High hopes to find Angel soon."

"Thanks so much," Erin told her, and gave Olivia a big hug before getting on the stairs. "Good luck," Olivia told her, "and I hear that they might need you to go back to your old job when you get back to Tokyo-3?"

Erin's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Why? What happened?"

"They'll fill you in on the plane," Olivia answered. "While we've been busy something big popped up in Japan. Go on, I'll see you when you all get back."

"Okay," said Erin, really not sure what was happening. She got on the stairs and followed Patrick into the jet.

Zummy approached the stairs and was handed the duffel bag by Dylan. "Have a safe flight," he told him.

"Uh, thanks," said David with much trepidation. The open door of the jet beckoned. He hesitated for a moment until Patrick's head popped out. "Zumwalt, get your ass up here or they're gonna stuff you in the cargo hold. Move!"

"Alright, I'm coming." Zummy climbed the stairs quickly, nearly slipping off once on his way up. He reached the top a few second later and saw the logos inside of the jet. "Holy shit! This is NERV's jet?!"

Patrick didn't have patience in the matter. "Strap in, fanboy," he ordered and David quickly found an open seat to set in as the jet started it's engines. Patrick and Erin were already seated and belted in, and faced each other on one side of the aircraft, while Zummy's seat was across the aisle's from Erin. He hurriedly put on the seat harness as the jet wasted no time taxing onto the tarmac. "I don't believe this. I so don't believe this is happening," Zummy said under his breath as the aircraft quickly gained speed and was in the air a half-second just after Zummy fastened the last clasp on his seatbelt.

This chapter too entirely too long to put together but finally here it is. The stage is shifting and we will be going back to Japan for the next arc of this story. Much more to come and a lot more surprises to follow.

I do have to apologize on the delays for getting the story out, this was supposed to be the "easy" novel but continual grown-up type issues like work and family intrude, plus I keep taking trips away from home where I can't get writing in. Now that I'm back I expect to be more stable and productive. Should have another chapter up by November. Of this year. Thanks!

Reviews and support always welcome. We're about 50-55% through the current story now.