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As the M.P.s began the search, Col. Sharp was watching their progress inside and out.
"Maderna here, all sniper teams ready and waiting."/"Lavigne reporting; he's not in the secondary hanger, moving to primary."/"This is Berkowitz, third floor armory's clear, sir."/"This Huynh on floor five; he not in rec-room*."/"This is Mutt in supply room five; no sign of him, heading to the Chaplain's place**." He heard from a few of the monitors.
"11 minutes already... where is he?" Col. Sharp asked under his breath while glancing at the door behind him where Flash, Scarlett, Gung-Ho, and Frostbite have set up a cross-fire position when Mainframe got his attention.
"Machine shop!" He said outloud, enlarging a screen showing Deep Six standing over a body before taking the soldier's pistol and shooting the camera with it.
"Damn. Attention, we have a man down in machine shop two and the suspect is now armed, proceed with caution." The Col. announced over the intercom, but noticed movement on another monitor. "...Mainframe; screen 4, pan to the right." He ordered, and saw Snake-Eyes making a beeline for Deep Six's location. "Col. Sharp to Snake-Eyes, stop right now. Do you hear me... Alert to all M.P.'s in Mike Sierra Two; detain Snake-Eyes by any means necessary!"
But that order went unheeded as he dispatched two random M.P.s. Inside the room, Deep Six hid behind a stamping press before a small explosion was heard from the door. Seeing no one, he looked elsewhere, and just barely managed to avoid losing part of his head to Snake-Eye's sword. "You wanna die next, huh? Fine by me."
The ninja let body language be his reply. "How long have you been against us?" He asked by pointing the blade at him.
"You must be wondering how long this has been going on; but you're not gonna find out that easy, "pal"." Deep-Six replied before firing three shots at him.
"You killed McCabe, didn't you... why?" Snake-Eyes asked with an unseen scowl.
"Why get all riled up just because of that euro-bitch?; She wouldn't stop looking over my shoulder, so good riddance." Deep Six taunted, causing the only real Joe in the room to charge him with a flurry of slashes, damaging a few pieces of equipment. "Hey, you have any idea how much those cost? You'll have to pay for this one first!" He said next as he picked up and thrusting down the severed end what was a lever from a forklift, just barely missing the side of his face but not his visor, which fell off. Seeing what's behind that visor caused the diver to cringe. "...Holy god."
"God?" The diver heard from behind before being punched. "He ain't in charge of the place you're going, asshole."/"Wait, how did you-" The speaker and Deep Six said to each other as Col. Sharp and all the Joes arrived.
"Suspect disarmed; move in and surround him!" The Colonel ordered Short-Fuze, Dusty, Gung-Ho, Grunt, and Cross-Country while Scarlett handed Snake-Eyes a blindfold for temporary use. Once Deep Six was led out, Col. Sharp headed over to one of the Green-shirts. "Good thing he was too overconfident to notice your return." He said to the soldier in question, who turned out to be Breaker in disguise.
"It sure was, sir; and it's good to be back."
"And there you have it, right auut auf the Colonel's mouth." Barbecue explains.
"Ha, serves that sucka right; must have been outta sight."/"Neat'o."/"Let's make sure to give Breaker an apology for the hard time we gave him."/"And a few "welcome back" drinks at the clubhouse when-." Roadblock, Bazooka, Torpedo, and Lady-Jaye all say, having been called to along with Alpine, Airtight, Cover-Girl***, and Wild Bill*** by Duke to hear the full story before Green-shirt Perry interrupts.
"Duke, we jus... just found Mull... Mullaney." He reports while catching his breath.
"Mullaney's alive, where's he now?!"
"Topside; being checked by Larivee and Flint." He replies, and flattens himself against the wall as Roadblock and Lady-Jaye run past him.
Once reaching the flightdeck, the pair see the old chemist being tended to. "Seems i have some more guests." Mullaney says aloud as he points them out to Flint.
"Professor, what happened?" Lady-Jaye asks him.
"Eh... Oh, it's you again, Miss. Didn't recognize ya." He replies after squinting his eyes. "Bet i had ya goin' there after making like Houdini. I was under the impression you did that to me!"
"Forget that; How'd you get away?" She asks again as she crouches down.
"Well, after giving ya up for dead, i went all around until i came across some washed up metal from that fight i saw. Not sure if it's yours or Cobra's, but anyway, i made it as sea-worthy as i could to get here."
"It was a LANTIRN from one of the Skystrikers we lost; our mechanics hauled it up before you got here." A random sailor mentions.
"One of those, you mean?" Mullaney asks, pointing to the three remaining jets. "They anything like a Lancaster?"
"Lancaster? Man, today's birds are way better." Roadblock tells him while snickering.
"That's a shame. I used to be a navigator with the RCAF****, you know." Mullaney replies.
"And-" Flint started before noticing flashes out of the corner of his eye.
"Flint! Come here and look at this!"
After hearing Shipwreck's story, Lady-Jaye ran off and sat against what's left of a church's wall with her face against her knees when she heard footsteps behind her. "Kinda fitting that I'd find you here." Flint said cryptically as he plopped down next to her, but she showed no reaction even as he put an arm around her. "That wasn't because of us... Alison?"
Chapter twenty-nine.
*No offense to any Vietnamese readers.
**Finally added one.
***Just added them.
****Made up.
