Asmodeus sat in his office in the underground headquarters of Cosmos Weapons Manufacturers in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He was surrounded by an impressive array of computer screens, display projectors, video communication lines and even old fashioned hard line telephones. A large cup of steaming hot Colombian coffee sat on a reserved podium beside his chair, leaving the desk free for documents. This was the nerve center of the CWM security force and one of the largest stores of information in the world, though few people knew about it. Utilizing the array of supercomputers beneath the floor of the room, Asmodeus could hack into any computer system on the Earth in minutes. He'd even had a bit of success getting into the ZAFT computers up in the PLANTS, though those were much more difficult, just from the distance involved. Currently he was doing a wide band search for discharged or estranged military personnel who might have the motivation to hate Blue Cosmos or Cervantes Zunnichi. The list was depressingly long.

However, despite the length of the prospective task, Asmodeus was confident that he'd know who the enemy was before his coffee grew too much colder. He thought back to a situation a few months back, when one of the Andean terrorist training centers was hit and wiped out. There had been no distress signal until long after the base was destroyed, because the base radio operater had been killed at his station during the attack. Or rather, before the attack even began. The man's throat had been crushed. By a wire garrote. A strangler's tool, consisting of a length of steel wire strung between two grips. To use it, you looped it around your foe's neck and pulled it tight. If you knew what you were doing, you could crush their windpipe before they were even aware of your presence. A strong enough person could even decapitate a victim with it. However, it wasn't a weapon that could be used if the victim knew you were around, as all they had to do to avoid it would be to not let you put it around their neck.

So Asmodeus had directed another search of known killers who used garrotes and were accomplished enough infiltrators to sneak past a dozen sentries and penetrate to the radio room of a guarded base. The person would also have to be a good enough hacker to bypass several electronic locks. Asmodeus didn't think there were many people who fit all three criteria. And of course, he was right. In fact, there was only one. Andre Forkav. The Strangler Horrificus. A former Blue Cosmos member, actually. Someone Asmodeus had actually met on several occasions. He even had cause to hate Blue Cosmos and Mr. Zunnichi personally, having been blackmailed and manipulated into becoming the organization's most prolific killer, in hopes of seeing his children again. What Andre hadn't known was that his children had been shunted off into the early BCPU projects and were lost there.

Of course, the problem with this theory was that Andre Forkav was dead, for several years now. He had died in a shuttle crash, coming back from yet another successful terrorist foray in the PLANTS. Asmodeus remembered the crash. The bodies in the shuttle were all too badly burned to identify directly, but DNA evidence had proved that Andre was in fact that corpse. However, the DNA evidence had been collected by Vladimir Valkavich, a close friend of Andre's. Asmodeus's suspicions were aroused again. He had dug deeper and found that Vladimir had also supposedly been on the shuttle that had crashed. Yet somehow he had managed to get off in time to avoid dying and also bring with him incontrovertible proof of his friend's death, just so he could show it to his superiors? It was a little too pat for Asmodeus's tastes.

Digging still deeper, Asmodeus discovered that Valkavich had dropped off the map about five years ago. He had done a search for the man and found him enrolled in a Guerilla warfare training camp hosted by the neutral nation of Orb. It was something done on the sly, since Orb needed highly trained soldiers, but they could hardly claim that having deadly commandos was a defensive measure, could they? The information had been filed away inside Orb's defense computers, but they hadn't even slowed Asmodeus down. Anything could be broken into, given the right resources. In his case, a few calls had gotten several "old drinking buddies" in the Orb defense headquarters to quietly jack the defense computers into the world wide net for nearly fifteen minutes. Asmodeus had been able to download a great deal of information in that time. He had set most away for future study and gone on with his dig.

Unsurprisingly, Valkavich was also skilled in infiltration and computer hacking. He was also reputably a mechanical genius, a man who could fix any vehicle given enough time and even come up with workable modifications to improve performance, all with just a normal household garage. Asmodeus had located several picture files of Valkavich and had run them through a disguise removing program. Sure enough, after only a few minutes, the program had stripped away the layers of plastic surgery and cosmetic artistry that concealed Andre Forkav. Asmodeus perused the files the Orb government had on Vlakavich/Forkav. Apparently he was one of the star students of the camp, along with four others who all had the same instructor, one Major Ledonir Kisaka.

A brief side search turned up Kisaka again. He was now Colonel Kisaka, the man who up until several weeks ago had been Regent of Orb. An interesting side note, but Asmodeus didn't really pay much attention until he dug up another report file, this one sealed and top secret. He cracked it open casually and glanced through the text and then glanced away before nearly spitting his coffee all over the screen. Apparently this Kisaka person had been engaged to a staunchly pro-Coordinator rights woman. Well, Blue Cosmos was never one to stand for that sort of thing, so they had kidnapped the woman. Valkavich was still listed as part of Blue Cosmos at that time. Asmodeus dimly remembered the mission; it hadn't been one of his. Kisaka and his students had attempted a rescue mission, one of those heroic action movie type things that all Special Forces personnel are taught never to do early on in their training.

Predictably, the rescue effort went south, and pretty hard too. Valkavich/Forkav revealed his affiliation with Blue Cosmos by stabbing his friends in the back. In the ensuing gunfight, the future Mrs. Kisaka had taken a SMG burst at close range. Needless to say, she did not survive and neither did her unborn twins. Valkavich/Forkav had disappeared again after this incident and so thoroughly that no matter how hard Asmodeus searched; he could find no mention of the man. However, never one to give up so easily, Asmodeus had backed up a bit and had looked at the situation from a different angle. Doubtless Valkavich's former friends would have wanted revenge for being betrayed like that. And of course, there it was, on the screens. Over the course of the next two years there were dozens of different inquiries by the four other commando's from the camp, as well as a few by Kisaka himself. Asmodeus had to admire their tenacity and ingeneuity… though unsuccessful in finding the location of Valkavich; they had figured out his connection to Andre Forkav and had even figured out what had happened to his children.

Then the four commandos had dropped off the radar, all at once. Less than three weeks later they appeared again, and this time there were five. Somehow, someway, they had managed to locate Valkavich. It was more than possible that it was just a fluke, one of those lucky twists of fate that all intelligence operatives know about and wish for. They had apparently confronted Valkavich/Forkav about his past and had revealed to him the fate of his children. Unsurprisingly, Valkavich had immediately tried to quit Blue Cosmos and swore revenge. Showing the kind of pity and sympathy that Asmodeus usually ascribed to fairy tale saints, the other four commandos had aided him in his quest to break free of Blue Cosmos. They were partially successful. Valkavich did indeed leave the organization, but in the course of the firefight, he was mortally wounded. The report in Asmodeus's files described how Valkavich had had both his arms caught in the treads of a tank and ripped off at the shoulder. How the man had survived was beyond Asmodeus, but apparently survive he had. But an armless cripple could hardly have garroted that radio operater, so Asmodeus had dived back into the search. Several months after Valkavich and his friends had disappeared from that fight; a CWM top secret lab was attacked.

Here was where things started to fall into place. This particular lab had been researching mechanical replacements for lost limbs. Normally, it wasn't a place that would get attacked, since the applications of the limbs were non combat oriented and besides, the research was highly experimental and only one set of prototypes had been created. Also, who would have the motivation to attack a lab that was producing something only crippled people had any need for? However, the lab was wiped out and the arms went missing. Less tha two months later, Blue Cosmos operatives had started disappearing. It had started out with just small groups. A person might go out with a group of friends and not come back, or a successful squad might go out to a party and come back minus two or three members. Most were never found. Things had dropped off during the war, Valkavich and company had no doubt found hidey holes and pulled them in after them, as any intelligent mercenaries would do during a full scale war of that sort. No sense in dying for a cause you didn't really believe in. And fighting Coordinators in commando warfare was a good way to find an early grave, their improved physical and mental abilities and reflexes made them frustrating opponents to say the least.

But then, after the war had ended, the training center in the Andes of Chile had been hit and destroyed. That brought Asmodeus full circle; convincing him he had the right story. From there it was a simple matter to look up the other four members of Valkavich's team. Asmodeus was now studying their profiles, making sure everything was in order before he sent the package to Mr. Zunnichi. His trademark was his completeness in every aspect of his job; it simply wouldn't do for even one seemingly pointless facet of the enemy to be ignored in his report. The four other commandos were named Robert Jones, James Ramsgoth, Raine Belaruse and the most surprising of all, Victor Klien, who was, ages ago, Asmodeus's dormmate in college and a fellow member of the University of Germany's fencing team. In fact, looking at the files, Asmodeus realized that he already knew these four people. They weren't even acquaintances, but he had either heard of them or studied missions they had been a part of.

First was the most famous or infamous of them. Robert Jones, aka Alkire Majesty aka several other names. A major in the EFSOU or Earth Forces Special Operations Unit, the same organization Asmodeus had been part of. Or a former major anyway. Apparently Jones had had a bit of a problem with Azrael's decision to use the newly acquired N-Jammer cancellers to nuke the PLANTS, rather than resolve the energy crisis. When the MP's tried to arrest him, he broke free and ran. An EFSOU General was killed in the process. Jones had fled to a safe house in Tokyo and had emerged several weeks later as Alkire Majesty. From there he had gone to Switzerland, where he had been living up until several weeks ago, when he abruptly left, attracting quite a bit of notice. He had piloted a jet out of the closed Bern airport, evading all attempts to track him and even indirectly causing one of the Strike Crusaders that were on loan to the EA for trials in the area to be shot down by friendly fire. His current whereabouts were still unknown.

Jones… or Majesty… which was an utterly ridiculous name… was a generalist. He had not specialized in any one area of the Special Forces arts. He was not an infiltrator, not a hacker, not a sniper, not a heavy weapons man, not a demolitions man, not any one thing. However, he could do almost everything with proficiency, if not mastery. He was of course an excellent shot with both rifle and pistol, and trained in various forms of unarmed combat, deadly and not. That was nothing less than expected. Exceptional items were his ability at piloting vehicles, which was rumored to be world class. He could fly or drive any sort of ground, air or sea vehicle short of the new Mobile Suits like he was born in it. His evasive maneuvers while escaping Bern had caused the destruction of a Strike Crusader from friendly fire, a nearly unheard of thing. Also, he was the scion of the Jones family, a byword among illegal arms dealers. The Jones's were rumored to be dead, and the business certainly had gone silent after the energy crisis started, but their resources still seemed to be at Majesty's command. He was undoubtedly the leader and sponsor of the enemy team.

Next was James Ramsgoth. Also a member of the Earth forces, he had served with honor during the war, in the AFAR, the Atlantic Federation Army Rangers. He had participated in several battles, including the re-taking of the Victoria Spaceport. He had been awarded several decorations for valor and heroism. He was said to be a bit of a wild man off the battlefield, having shaved his head and had two rams horns tattooed onto his scalp after one mission, but his battlefield conduct was unimpeachable. He was a heavy weapons specialist, the essential member of the team for providing that most beautiful of things, covering fire. Ramsgoth favored the heaviest of weapons, the .50 caliber machine gun, rocket launcher and flamethrower. Unlike many of his profession, he was said to be reasonably accurate, putting most of his shots directly into the enemy, rather than just hosing the air down with lead.

After Ramsgoth was the lone female, Raine Belaruse. She was not affiliated with any military force, having grown up as a fully independent mercenary, completely self taught. Such people were quite rare, most either dying off early or joining one of the specialist organizations of a nation for protection, training or most of all, money. Belaruse was from the Eurasian Federation, one of the smaller, more troubled provinces. That no doubt accounted for her mercenary status; she was likely either a victim or a perpetrator of the violence there. Belaruse was a sniper and a truly impressive one by what Asmodeus had discovered. She was apparently capable of amazing things with any form of gun, able to shoot better with a pistol than most people could with a scoped rifle. Belaruse was also a specialist in unarmed combat, an unusual thing for someone who fought most of their battles from a great distance.

Finally, there came Victor Klien. Asmodeus had been not so friendly rivals with him for top fencer in the university team. Their matches were still watched as instruction aids there. Outside the fencing strip, Asmodeus hadn't known Victor very well, which wasn't surprising for several reasons. Their competition had bled over into normal life and they usually avoided each other, not wanting to get into an argument or fight and jeopardize their place on the fencing team. Also, Asmodeus was quite a bit older than Victor, nearly fifteen years in fact. After getting his doctorate degree in computer sciences and masters in psychology, Asmodeus had lost track of Victor, who was a chemistry major. That was mainly due to Asmodeus re-enlisting in the Earth Alliance armed forces as an officer. He had concentrated on his career for the next decade or so, until he met Cervantes Zunnichi and had joined Blue Cosmos and later became the head of security at CWM, where he was now. Apparently Victor had also joined the military, no surprise considering his competitive and disciplined nature.

Victor had become a demolitions specialist. He could build bombs out of household supplies with just a few hours preparation. He had reportedly kept up with his fencing practice and was known to go on missions still armed with his saber, an odd thing for a support specialist to do. Victor had joined the EFSF or Eurasian Federation Special Forces and had also served during the war. He hadn't participated in any major battles like Ramsgoth had, but had served with repute in several top secret missions that would probably never be released to the public. Mostly resistance type things, bombing supply routes, ambushing morale and welfare convoys, the usual stuff. Knowing Victor, he is undoubtedly a source of friction within the team. He probably wants to be leader, but can't compete with the sponsor's background. He's probably fuming about it constantly.

"A dangerous group. They have talent in spades." Asmodeus said out loud, leaning back in his chair and stretching. He wasn't as young as he used to be. Sitting in front of his computer screens for a marathon intelligence gathering session wasn't so easy now that he was in his forties. Asmodeus bent back to his screens and sent the information packet to Cervantes's computer. "Victor… it's been a very long time since I thought about you." Asmodeus mused. "I wonder if you tried to keep tabs on me too?" It was more than likely. If no one else had, Jones certainly had done so. Asmodeus didn't recall Jones very well, though he knew the Major had been a bit of an idealist, not the sort who usually became commandos. Asmodeus did know that Jones probably didn't like him very much, since Jones's family had been in an area that Asmodeus had been in charge of evacuating during the energy crisis, but Asmodeus had diverted his men to protect one of Mr. Zunnichi's estates instead. Asmodeus shrugged. Such were the winds of war. If Jones was rational, he would have placed the blame where it belonged, on the Coordinators who dropped the N-Jammers to begin with.

"I'll have to get my very best men on this." Asmodeus said out loud. "The Lieutenant and Sergeant Glory, of course. Also a few of their men. They're guarding Argyle right now, but this is more important. I'll have to get in contact with some of my old unit, and with the EFSOU sponsors. Doubtless they'll be able to provide me with the equipment I'm going to need as well. It's been a while since I've done counter-terrorism against truly worthy foes." Asmodeus said with a wide grin. He placed his fingers lightly on his keyboards, pausing to savor the moment of anticipation before starting his inquiries and requests. The day was far from over. Still so much to be done.

-------------------------

"All right, we're on our final approach to Orb International Airport. We'll be landing in about ten minutes. Is everyone ready?" Alkire said over the intercom. Vlad was doing the standard talk with the control tower, checking wind speed, runway numbers and landing times. It was a process that always needed to be done when landing safely. Or at least, landing safely without provoking hostility from the government. Right now, Alkire wanted everything to go by the book. They needed this to go like clockwork. "You have the landing." He told Vlad.

"I have the landing." Vlad replied. In truth, the autopilot could have handled the landing, but a human hand was always reassuring, and besides, Vlad had no other better thing to be doing at the moment. Alkire headed back into the passenger compartment. Everyone was already in their disguises. Well, most of them weren't really disguised at all. Nobody knew who Ysak, Dearka, Chanel, Miriallia or Katie was, so they didn't require anything. Kira and Lacus might be recognized, but clothed in a dark business suit and a black dress and veil respectively; Alkire doubted anyone would look twice. Everyone else wore funerary clothing as well. That had been Alkire's plan. He had two large coffins in the cargo area of his plane. Well, they weren't actually coffins but rather were drop boxes used for supply drops in places without airstrips, but they did look a lot like them.

Cagalli and Athrun were lying down on the cabin floor, dressed up as a dead rich couple. Alkire didn't expect the coffins to be opened, but just in case he had dyed Cagalli's blond hair black, and had her put blue contacts in, while at the same time dyeing Athrun's blue-purple hair blond and giving him brown contacts. To cap it off, Alkire would administer a mild sedative to them that would keep them completely still no matter how hard they were poked or prodded, and would also make their breathing very had to notice and make their skin feel chilled. "Is everyone ready?

"Yes. But I still think the sedative is unnecessary." Athrun complained. "I don't like the idea of being drugged and helpless. What happens if something goes wrong?"

"Given that you'll be locked inside a metal box anyway, I don't think it'd matter if you were pumped full of combat drugs if something went wrong. You'd still be helpless to do anything." Victor noted. Athrun shrugged that by.

"Okay, fine, good point. But what if they open the coffin and notice I'm not dead? I don't like the idea of just lying there while they point a gun at my head or Cagalli's. We're like hostages in a can." Athrun countered.

"How are they going to notice you aren't dead? With this sedative, the only way they'll know you're alive is if they take you to a hospital and run a blood test on you. Besides, I don't care how good an actor you are, if someone kicks you in the ribs, you're going to react. Period." Alkire replied.

"Why would they kick me in the ribs?" Athrun asked.

"To make sure you're dead, of course." Alkire said. "Look, none of this is likely to happen. They probably won't even open the coffins. People are usually pretty respectful toward the dead, especially here in Orb. Very few people are suspicious enough to inspect the dead bodies of two Orb citizens coming home for burial. But this is just for the outside chance. Just in case. To be totally safe." Alkire signaled briefly to Raine and James, who knelt behind Athrun and Cagalli. Before either teenager could react, they had been pricked on the neck with the sedative needles. "The subject isn't open to debate." Alkire told them.

"I'm gonna…" Athrun yawned. He tried to stand up but instead fell back onto the cabin floor. "Gonna… get… you… for this… Alk…ire." Cagalli didn't even manage to say a word; she just collapsed straight to the floor.

"Yeah, I'm sure you will, Athrun. Just do it after we get you into the country unnoticed. Perhaps you'll have calmed down by then." Alkire replied, though Athrun couldn't hear him. "What about the rest of you? You know what to do?"

"Yes. Ysak and I will help Vladimir and James carry Cagalli's coffin, while you, Victor, Kira and Raine carry Athrun's coffin." Dearka replied.

"Meanwhile, Chanel, Katie and I will act the part of bereaved friends and family." Lacus answered.

"Was it really necessary to sedate them like that?" Kira asked doubtfully.

"Tell me, you're her brother. What would Cagalli do if you poked her in the stomach like this?" Alkire asked, moving over to Kira and poking him hard with one finger. Kira let out a small gasp of discomfort and twitched away. "You knew what I was going to do and could see me coming. And yet you still gasped and twitched. What would it be like if you had your eyes closed and didn't know someone was going to poke you?"

"Cagalli'd probably smack you. I guess I see your point. But sneaking up on them with the needles like that wasn't very nice." Kira replied.

"We didn't have time to argue. We'll be on the ground in a couple minutes and theres still a bit of prep work to be done." Alkire responded. He turned and strode aft into the cargo compartment where the coffins were. He made sure all of the team's gear and weapons were packed down tight into the false bottoms of the coffins before closing the "bottom" over them. Thin lead sheets plated around the false bottom would prevent it from being discovered via X-Ray examination. Final check completed, Alkire called back to James and Raine. "All right, bring the corpses in."

It took only a few minutes to arrange the comatose Athrun and Cagalli into poses of peaceful rest. Alkire closed the coffin lids himself and locked them with a set of keys from around his neck. He then draped two authentic Orb flags over the tops of the coffins. "All right. Two distinguished Orb corpses, coming right home. Hopefully this'll work better than the last time I tried this little stunt."

"What'd you say? You were mumbling." Kira asked.

"Nothing. Just a little prayer for good luck."

"I thought you said you didn't need luck, you were so skilled at this sort of thing." Ysak commented nastily.

"Everybody needs luck, despite what I may have said as a confidence booster." Alkire said. With a screech of tires, the jet set down on the runway with barely a bump. "All right, to your positions, everyone!" Alkire ordered. As the jet taxied to its parking place, everyone gathered around the coffins and waited. Alkire tried to keep everyone calm by telling quick jokes and funny stories, but he could tell that everyone was still nervous. Not that he blamed them. If something went wrong, it wouldn't go wrong in a small way. This plan was all or nothing. Finally, the jet reached its designated parking area and Vlad completed the post flight check and joined them in the cargo area. Alkire took an instant to recompose himself. "Showtime." He said quietly and hit the cargo ramp button.

As one, the coffins were lifted and slowly carried down the cargo ramp and onto the tarmac. It was slow going, the coffins were made of durable but heavy metal, and there was a body in each one, plus nearly sixty pounds of weapons and gear secreted in the bottom of each as well. Fortunately, they did not encounter anyone on their way across the tarmac to the customs building. As Alkire had hoped, the airport was far too busy and their jet much too insignificant to warrant an escort by security or even anyone to greet them. The fewer times they encountered other people, the greater the chance of success. Alkire had called ahead during the flight and a private hearse was waiting for them on the other side of customs, assuming they got through. Reservations were also booked for the "funerary party" at a five star beachfront resort several miles from the airport. Alkire had debated reserving a less public venue for them to stay at, but a hearse parked outside a motel inn or airport hotel would attract far more attention than just being able to drop the coffins off in the basement of the five star resort while the "funerary party" recuperated from their wearying journey before moving on to their final destination.

Alkire led the group over to the customs inspection room and respectfully lowered the coffins to the floor. Alkire quickly removed the counterfeit documents Raine and he had created that provided identities and dates and locations detailing the "funerary party" and their travels in bringing the two corpses home. Included in the documents were false certificates of death and a brief record of what Athrun and Cagalli's alter egos, Mr. and Mrs Amazai, had been up to before they died. A team of bored looking inspectors came over.

"Documents?" one asked. Alkire handed over the documents. The man read over the papers carefully. Alkire waited him out. He was familiar with the ways of customs agents. The agent was being deliberately slow, waiting to see if any member of the group would become nervous or agitated. Alkire casually glanced over at his group. A TEMPEST member was standing near each group of teenagers, to make sure they remained calm. Alkire smiled ever so slightly and turned back to the customs agent.

"Your documents seem to be in order Mr… Amazai?" the agent said. "You related to the deceased?"

"I'm Mr. Amazai's older brother, sir." Alkire replied. The agent nodded, not very interested. "Everyone else is family or close friends of the deceased." Alkire explained.

"Uh huh. We'll inspect the coffins now. Please stand away from them." The agent ordered. Alkire nodded in acknowledgement and motioned for everyone to move away, which they did with admirable calm. The team of agents moved over to the coffins and began their visual and tactile inspection. "Metal coffins?" the senior agent asked almost immediately.

"It's been a long trip, sir and I wanted to be sure the bodies were undisturbed. My brother and his wife will be transfered to more appropriate resting places for the actual funeral." Alkire answered smoothly.

"You don't seem too broken up about it." Another agent, this one female, noted. Alkire turned to her and gave a very small smile.

"Miss, my brother's death troubles me greatly. I have not even begun to mourn for him or his lovely wife. But breaking down in public would do nothing but dishonor their memories. My brother and his wife were very gentle people; they would not want others to be overly sad over their passing." Alkire replied.

"What was the cause of death again?" the woman asked, running her hands carefully along the bottom edge of Cagalli's coffin while her fellows lifted the coffin so she could get underneath.

"Hypothermia. They were on a skiing trip in Scandinavia and got caught out in a storm. Their protective garments weren't enough." Alkire summed up in a tight voice, acting like it was a raw and painful thing to say.

"All done here." The woman said. "The coffins are legitimate. I just want to take a quick look at the interiors. The bottom looks a little thick for a coffin, but I'm no expert so I want to do a quick visual."

"Whatever you say, Sue." The senior agent replied. He bent down over Athrun's coffin and and then looked up at Alkire. "Keys, please. We won't disturb the bodies; it's just a quick visual inspection."

"Of course." Alkire said. He removed the keys from around his neck and unlocked both coffins. Alkire noted Kira starting to tense up a bit and he sent James a nearly invisible hand signal. Jame clamped a hand solidly down on Kira's shoulder and pulled him close, as if comforting a fellow mourner. Alkire helped the customs agents pull the lids of the coffins open.

"Nice wedding ring." Sue said, flicking her eyes at Cagalli's engagement ring.

"My brother was a very successful businessman, and he loved his wife dearly." Alkire replied. Sue grunted in acknowledgement and continued her visual inspection. Alkire wasn't too worried. The false crate bottoms had been designed by the best in the espionage business. They were designed to pass any inspection short of fully disassembling the crate itself into its base components. Finally the customs agent was finished with her visual inspection.

"They're clear. I'm sorry for taking so long but we have to be sure no one tries to smuggle anything into the country. Even inside the coffins of two respected citizens." Sue said in apology. Alkire shrugged it off.

"I'm glad. But we must be going now. The funeral is in a few days, and my family and friends and I need to get to the hotel, so we can meet up with the family and friends here. Thank you for your time, inspectors." Alkire said. He beckoned and everyone lifted the coffins again and carried them out to the hearse. The hearse driver helped them load the coffins into the back of the hearse and then drove off with James and Victor riding along to make sure the coffins were taken to the correct hotel. Everyone else piled into a pair of limousines for a ride to the resort as well. Alkire motioned for everyone to remain silent for the duration of the ride.

Kira and Lacus looked around at the still devastated countryside. Though most of the fighting had taken place around Onogoro Island and Kaguya Island, on the other side of Orb, there was still damage here as well. The Earth Alliance hadn't occupied Orb for long, since they had lost the reason why they came, the mass driver, but it was evident that the brief stay had been quite rough on the nation of Orb. Buildings had burn scars and blast marks on them, and many trees were nothing but jagged stumps or heaps of charcoal. Everyone remained very tense and quiet until they reached the resort. Vlad and Raine hustled everyone up to their suites on the top floor while Alkire went to the basement to find Victor and James already waiting for him.

Victor and James led Alkire to the basement storage room where the coffins were laid out on two sturdy tables. Alkire checked the room for survellience devices, drawing a sniff of disdain from Victor. "Just checking, myself." Alkire explained. "You wouldn't like it if a battalion of security gaurds charged in here the moment the bodies got up, would you?"

"You are sometimes too paranoid even for me, Alkire." Victor replied. "Besides, James and I have already swept the room thoroughly."

"Are you saying that you wouldn't have checked, if you were me?" Alkire retorted.

"Hey now, lets just let the kids out of their coffins. You guys can get into a fist fight over espionage etiquette later." James cut in. Alkire nodded and Victor sniffed again, but they let it drop. It was the work of moments to unlock the coffins and administer a stimulant to Athrun and Cagalli to wake them up.

"Are we through customs and safe?" Athrun asked, his eyes still closed. Cagalli groggily sat up in her coffin and rubbed her neck where Alkire had injected her.

"Yep, completely free and clear. It was a breeze." Alkire replied.

"And we're in the resort now?"

"Yep. If you'd open your eyes, you wouldn't need to ask questions, you know?"

"Yes. But I'm still trying to calm myself down. I did not appreciate you putting me to sleep like I was some sort of inmate."

"Geez, you're still mad about that?"

"Wouldn't you be?"

"Dunno… never happened to me. Usually I'm the smooth talking leader, not the sedated pseudo-corpse. I think I can see why someone might not like being drugged and carried insensate into a potentially dangerous situation though."

"I'm so glad you can see my view point." Athrun said, finally opening his eyes and sitting up. He glared at Alkire intensely. "Don't do it again. We're getting out of the country in another manner."

"Of course. Now, would you mind getting out of the box? We need to get the gear out of there." Alkire agreed politely. Athrun climbed to his feet and stepped out of his coffin and then went over to help lift Cagalli out of hers. Being a natural, her immune system wasn't as equipped as his for throwing off the effects of the sedative. James and Victor quickly and efficiently removed the lids to the false bottom of the coffins and lifted out all the TEMPEST member's gear, which they just as quickly packed into suitcases and duffel bags that they had bought from the resort gift shop upstairs. In less than five minutes all the gear was stowed, the lids were back on the false bottoms and the coffins themselves were shut and locked.

"We're done here. James and I will take the gear up to our suites." Victor reported.

"Good job. I'll be up in a bit." Alkire replied. He then turned to Athrun and Cagalli. He handed them two electronic key cards, their cell phones, two wallets with lots of paper cash and false IDs, and a vacation travel brochure. "The keys are to your suite, up on the fifteenth floor. Your friends and us are the only other ones up there, so you can relax up there if you want, but just remember not to call each other by your real names anywhere else. There aren't too many people named Athrun or Cagalli you know, and your visual disguises won't hold up against a trained police check for long.

"Thank you. But what are we supposed to do now?" Cagalli asked. Alkire grinned and placed a hand on his chest.

"You guys and the rest of your little group are going to take some well deserved R and R here on the beach. Rest up and revitalize yourselves for the future. We're going to need all of you in top form when we find out where Kisaka is. All your stuff should be upstairs by now and if not there's a little more than eight hundred dollars in each of your wallets, more than enough to buy whatever clothing or whatever else is necessary." Alkire explained.

"What about you, what are you going to do?" Athrun asked.

"Me? I'm going to go soak up the sun and the local scene. Vlad'll come with me and hopefully by this time tomorrow we'll know not only what prison Kisaka's in, but what he's eaten for the past few days and some other little details."

"What food he's eaten? Why is that important?" Cagalli asked.

"It isn't. But he'll be a lot friendlier if we bring him some nice things to eat. Prison fare is pretty bland, you know. Sorry… commando humor. You two just go off and have a good time. I'll call you both when I find something out." Alkire replied before heading off to get changed. Athrun and Cagalli quickly followed suit, glad to get out of their coffin garb.