Sai scanned the morning newspaper as he sat in his desk in his plush corner office on the thirtieth floor of the CWM administration building situated just a few miles outside the city of Pearl Harbor. His view looked out at the lush jungles and white sandy beaches and turquoise ocean, rather than at the remains of the ruined city. The newspaper was one of several that were specially delivered from the mainland of the Atlantic Federation, not a local newspaper, so it contained news from around the world, not just Hawaii and the Pacific theatre. A local paper sat neatly folded on his desk, waiting for its subsequent perusal. It had been part of his daily routine ever since he started working for CWM to read about news on the international front first while he drank his morning coffee, then turn to the comics in the local paper to wind down for a few minutes before getting started on the day. Nowadays, after the nuking of Pearl Harbor, he didn't have much time for the funnies anymore... he instead devoured both papers quite carefully, digesting every last little bit of information about the war they contained, comparing what was written in the papers to what he knew from the confidential military reports he managed to secure from his supporters in Blue Cosmos. More than half of what was reported in the papers was out and out propaganda and much of the rest was either exaggerated or undersold in order to mitigate the understanding of the common person about just how poorly the war was going. The headlines of the international paper still went on about "INVASION FORCES RECUPERATING FOR SECOND PUSH IN ORB" and "MASSIVE ZAFT CASUALTIES WILL BRING SWIFT END TO WAR". It was true that the EA forces were recuperating in Orb, but there was no second push at Carpentaria planned... the EA simply did not have the available forces for another go at the ZAFT fortress and what forces they did have were so battered and beaten they would be lucky to maintain defensive positions, much less mount any sort of new offensive for at least another month or two. It was also true that ZAFT had suffered serious losses during the battle of Carpentaria... but they had been the victors in the end and in the greater scope of things they were much better off than the devastated EA troops.
The local paper was a little more faithful to reality, discussing as it did mostly the status of the rebuilding of the Pearl Harbor military bases and the city itself, which was proceeding slowly if steadily. Already most of the serious blast damage had been cleaned up, while the ruined buildings were being leveled at the rate of two or three a day. New construction was scheduled to begin in three months. The city was being completely redesigned, quite literally from the ground up, something which the displaced residents regarded with mixed feelings, though most were just glad that the city was being rebuilt at all... there had been talk early on after the tragedy of just abandoning the city as a historic site. Still, Sai could not help but spot a few articles where what actually was had been glossed over by what people were supposed to believe. He grunted sourly... academically he could understand the importance of morale boosting and misinformation, but something still didn't sit well with him. It was almost like the entire populace was being manipulated into supporting the war... something which shouldn't have been necessary. After all, when a man gets attacked, what reason is there to continue reminding him that he has to fight back? If he wants to defend himself he will, and any urging is unnecessary and possibly even counterproductive. Sai knew he wasn't the only citizen who read the papers with more than a hint of suspicion and doubt these days. He finished scanning the international paper, checking the stock market to see, unsurprisingly, that CWM shares had risen another two points, to a staggering 2345.78. Other military contractors and essential suppliers were also on the rise... while most everything else was down in the pits and digging deeper every day. War might be good for industry, but the rest of the economy was dying... and the only cure was lasting peace, which seemed to be out of sight right at the moment.
He was just reaching for the local paper when one of the three phones on his desk rang. He had three phones because he was a senior vice president... and because phones apparently equaled status in this building. One phone, the black one, was for normal calls and also accessed the building intercom. The next was cream white and that was for calls outside the immediate confines of the building and local area... its most often use was either sending or receiving calls to/from Vanai. And then there was the phone that was ringing... the dark blue phone reserved for calls from senior CWM executives. It was the phone that rang the least often... and the one he spent the most time on, conversely, because whenever it did ring it meant that something important was happening... which meant a business meeting. Sai had yet to attend a teleconference meeting that had lasted less than five hours and he gave the blue phone a more than somewhat disgusted look because of this. It was barely eight thirty in the morning and he had a lot of paperwork to do today, not to mention a few laboratory tests and a few private projects to look into. Plus a dinner date with Vanai at seven thirty he could absolutely not be late for. And he had to allow for an extra thirty minutes of time because his bodyguard detail had been changed and the new men were still getting used to his habits and so required him to wait for them to be ready for him to move from place to place. He reached for the phone, his expression growing more sour.
Cyprus and his men had been recalled the day before, completely out of the blue. They had not been happy about it, but the recall notice had come as a direct order from not only Captain Asmodeus Sark, the Hellhounds commanding officer, but from the authority of the Joint Chief's of Staff AND Cervantes Zunnichi himself. It was almost like Asmodeus had expected Cyprus to be reluctant to follow the order and had compensated by frontloading it with extra high authority. Given how his normally taciturn and unflappable bodyguard-friend had reacted, Sai privately thought Asmodeus knew his man well... inconveniently well in this case. To say that Cyprus had been displeased with the order was like saying that a hurricane had slightly fast winds. But despite nearly a full minute of shouting and pacing... a minute during which all twelve members of the squad plus Sai had stared in fearful awe... Cyprus had regained hold of his emotions like a iron porticullis dropping in front of a gate, cutting himself off in mid tirade and bringing himself to a state of near absolute stillness within a second. Turning his back to the squad, he had made a few brisk hand motions directing them to gather up their gear and pack up for rapid departure. A second series of gestures brought him and Sai outside and down to the beach, where Cyprus had stopped with his toes just shy of the gently lapping waves, staring intently out to sea in silence. Sai had been about to say something when Cyprus held up a hand for silence. After a minute more he finally turned back to regard his charge and boss.
"I've been ordered to take my team, the Alpha Hellhounds, to Orb." Cyprus said shortly. "The mission statement say's we are being recalled for an important briefing... but that is a load of horse shit." Cyprus spat out, his voice back to its inflectionless norm. "I don't like this one bit, sir. There is only one reason that Asmodeus and Cervantes would want to gather all the Hellhounds in Orb... a nation which is currently hosting more than its fair share of peace protests and anti-alliance gatherings. We're going to be charged with crowd control. And not the friendly sort. Blood is going to be spilt in Orb... and me and mine are going to be the ones spilling it."
Sai considered that for a few moments and slowly nodded. It made sense, of a sort. Everyone with half a brain and an internet connection knew there was going to be a really big protest in Orb any week now... a public demonstration of the like not seen since the beginning of the centuryand the initial controversy over Coordinators. Knowing his father in law, Cervantes would not... perhaps could not... let such an event prosper. It would utterly ruin his prestige and reputation with the higher ups in the Earth Alliance if he allowed the territory he was all but lord of to host such a public rebellion against the Alliance... even a peaceful rebellion. And to Cervantes, the loss of prestige and reputation was far worse than any mortal wound on the battlefield could be. So he was recalling all of his best men, the ones he could count on to follow his orders with absolute efficiency, to help contain what he saw as a crisis. Sai shook his head slightly... too bad that more than half the men that Cervantes was now counting on were in fact secretly opposed to his goals. Too bad for Cervantes anyway. "So what will you do? I'm not ready yet to confront my father in law... he's still in far too strong a position for me to challenge him, publicly or privately."
"I... will go." Cyprus replied. "Appearances must be kept. Suspicions must be allayed... assumed loyalties must be observed. And as you say, the Isolationists are not yet strong enough to confront Cervantes Zunnichi... he still bestrides the Alliance like a colossus and any attempt at a confrontation will only end in tragedy for us all." Cyprus paused a moment. "Still, this pleases me not at all. The orders say that temporary guards have been assigned to you... but I do not know the group or unit they come from and that makes me uneasy. You are the leader of the Isolationists and the last true hope for peace in this world, though only a few of us know that now. If we were to lose you, we would lose more than a friend and a good man... we would lose all hope of stopping this genocidal war. Please, sir... be extremely cautious. I will endeavor to make my time in Orb as short as possible... but until I return you must triple your guard and be constantly wary."
"You make it sound like there are assassins hounding my every step, Cyprus." Sai said, trying to lighten the mood a bit with some humor, though he was already more than a little worried. Cyprus, the legendary lieutenant, was not known for his speeches or for being a worrywart... given how effusive his friend was being and the nature of his words... well, it was sobering to say the least. He looked at Cyprus and found himself locked into a stare that he could not pull away from. He didn't know how long Cyprus kept their gazes locked, with his lips pursed into a tight line and a grim cast to his features.
"Do not underestimate the number or resolve of thine enemies, sir. Just because you have yet to be attacked in any serious manner does not mean that the enemy has signed a treaty saying they will not make an attempt on your life tomorrow or the next day. Though you are not the most public of figures, you can be certain that ZAFT knows exactly who has married Vanai Zunnichi... Mr. Zunnichi, sir." Cyprus said, his voice chilly, reminding Sai that he was officially part of the Zunnichi family now, including in name. "And while they know they could never assassinate Cervantes... perhaps his son in law is less well protected? You can be sure that someone will notice that your guards have been changed... if for no other reason than they can now see you have guards whereas before no one knew we were around, except for a select few. And while the senior staff of Blue Cosmos may have turned a blind eye to your internet postulating, can you say with certainty that others in the organization have done so? There are many die hard killers in Blue Cosmos who would not appreciate the Isolation Plan one tiny little bit... they would gladly kill you for being impure to the organization if they had the chance... especially if they could make it look like the Coordinators did it. Not too hard a frame job, actually..."
"I get it." this time it was Sai who held up his hand for silence, finally tearing his gaze from Cyprus's. "I'll be careful... very careful. You have my solemn word." he said, returning to skewer Cyprus with his own glare as he said it, knowing that when speaking to Cyprus, sincerety equaled prolonged steady eye contact. Cyprus studied Sai for a long few moments and then finally nodded, just barely.
"Then take this as extra insurance... keep it in a place you can reach quickly." Cyprus unfastened the pistol holster at his side and held it forth. "It's a standard issue special forces pistol, actually manufactured by a subsidary of CWM. It fires 10mm jacketed hollow point bullets and has a clip of eleven rounds. It's effective range is approximately seventy feet, though if I were you I wouldn't expect you to hit much beyond forty feet. Still, if you can hit your target, you can be assured that unless they are wearing fairly serious body armor, they will go down and likely not get back up again. I've used this gun for four years now and it has yet to jam or misfire on me. May it serve to protect you if need be until I can return to do the job properly. I hope you will never need to use it... but it is there to be used if need arises. Understand?"
"I do." Sai almost reverently took the pistol in its holster from his friend, feeling the weight of the loaded firearm heavy in his hands. He did not buckle the holster belt around his waist... it was patently ridiculous to think of himself as a combatant... he had very little training and less inclination to use firearms. His worth was not calculated in the harm he could do to the enemy personally, but by what he could do to change the course of history through his ideas and words. "Thank you for this responsibility, Cyprus."
Cyprus had not responded with anything more than another serious nod before he returned to the command bunker to gather his own gear up for packing. Two hours later the Hellhound team had left, each waving a simple farewell as they passed Vanai, sunning herself on the patio, while giving a sharp salute to Sai as they walked past. The next day an unmarked helicopter had arrived, just like it did every morning, to fly him the fifteen miles to the main island where he would meet with his armored limosuine for the ten minute drive to the CWM complex. Inside the helicopter were four men in business suits, obviously part of the new guard force. Though for all their bluff competence Sai could not help but feel slightly wary with them around. It wasn't something he had been able to place his finger on until he finally reached the silence of his office. Then it became obvious. Before when he'd gone to and from work, while the Hellhounds had been around, he'd never been able to pick them out from the crowds and ordinary people around him... he knew they were there but there was no evidence. The new guards were highly visible, always staying within easy sight of him and they did not blend well with the people in the background, despite their business suits and dark shades... or maybe because of them. They looked too much in place to be real office workers.
Sai had placed the gun in one of the little used kitchen drawers in Vanai's house... his house, now. Vanai, for all her beauty and political skills, was not even close to a cook. She could burn a peanut butter sandwich. They had several live in servants that took care of the cooking and cleaning around the house, but they hardly ever used the main kitchen, which was mainly for show and acting as a sort of food storage plus bar during parties, which Vanai hosted frequently for various local and international dignitaries. Thus there was little danger of anyone else discovering it or moving it from its hiding place and it was still in a central location he could find easily if trouble arose. All these thoughts flashed through his head in an instant as he reached for the ringing blue phone.
"This is Mr. Argyle speaking."Sai said as he put the phone to his ear. He could have put it on the speaker and he'd probably have to when the call turned into a teleconference, but for the moment he liked fooling himself with the thought that maybe he'd be able to hang up quickly. He used his birth name because conferences on the blue phone often involved his father in law and it complicated things having two "Mr. Zunnichi's" on the line. He listened to the voice on the other end of the line for a minute or two before putting the phone down with a sigh that he hoped the other people could not hear. With the flick of a switch built into his desk the windows polarized themselves to a level where it would be impossible to see through from either side while the speakerphone activated itself and a forty inch flatscreen monitor descended from the ceiling, crackling to life and splitting into ten seperate but equally sized boxes. It was an impromptu board of directors meeting. Cervantes was too busy with unspecified matters in Orb to attend and so Sai had to sit in and observe in his place. It was horridly boring but Sai forced himself to pay attention as the various executives in charge of the myriad aspects of CWM gave their various status reports.
Mobile suit production was up another ten percent, which Sai supposed was a good thing, considering the number of casualties that had to be replaced from Carpentaria. He frowned when no knew concepts for improved mobile suits were brought forward... if the R and D teams didn't get their asses in gear soon the EA was going to be left behind. ZAFT was coming up with new models at a frightening pace and while the Strike Crusader was a solid, dependable upgrade for the Strike Dagger, it wasn't the be all-end all of mobile suits... not by a long shot. Sai had put several recommendations in to the R and D teams but he could hardly ask about such projects in the middle of the board meeting, as none of his projects even existed to more than half the board. Dr. Bates, senior Vice President in charge of Research and Development, his old bosses boss, was firmly on his side as was Mr. Smalls, the VP in charge of Accounting and Mr. Pojawski, VP in charge of Human Resources. But every else on the board were through and through pure stooges of Cervantes and so Sai had to wait for another time to enquire about the new mobile suit and other designs he had Dr. Bates working on in secret, while Mr. Smalls and Mr. Pojawski provided the money and manpower to slowly turn the designs into reality while keeping the rest of CWM and more importantly the rest of Blue Cosmos in the dark.
Overall profits were up a full three percent from last quarter, which cheered all the members of the board of directors immensely... it would mean another seven or eight figure bonus check at the end of the year if they kept up this pace. There were only a few setbacks... one being the loss of the administrative facility in Panama eight days prior, which had caused more than one point six four billion dollars worth of damage, plus the still massive deficit from the loss of JIHAD earlier... Sai had yet to see the formal pricetag on the mysterious base that had been eating up more than seventy percent of the R and D budget, but given that they were raking in a good forty to fifty million dollars every hour and had been since the facility was lost and they were still in the red... well that spoke for itself. That had been a hellish meeting, the day the board had convened with Cervantes to discuss that little problem, especially coming as it did on the eve of the massive catastrophe involving Carpentaria and the twelfth lunar fleet.
Morale in the company was still high though, as all workers had been receiving monthly raises plus substantial bonuses... an idea from Sai, actually. It hadn't been the most popular at the time of presentation... Cervantes had nearly had a stroke on the spot as had half the board, but when Sai showed them that even with the raises and bonuses their profits would still be increasing at twice the rate of the nearest competitor, they had backed off. Now he had been vindicated... treat the people well and they'll treat you well back. Profits had risen every month that had a raise and a bonus in it and things didn't look to be slowing down any time soon. Relationships with other major corporations were as good as could be expected... they were the leading edge of the pack in terms of military contractors and they owned significant portions of the commercial construction, electrical power and industry markets, with subsidary companies that extended throughout nearly every possible branch of business, from mass farming of foodstuffs to fine glassware to gemstones and precious metals. Truly, CWM was a corporate giant in the strictest meaning of the term... they bestrode the Earth and the Moon like a titan of mythology, casting their mighty shadow of raw economic power over every nook and cranny of the world beneath them.
Sai forced himself to stay awake and alert looking throughout the entire six hour long meeting... though to be truthful after about the first hour and a half his thoughts were mostly of Vanai and the dinner that night. She'd at last forgiven him for having views that contradicted those of her father... well, maybe forgiven was the wrong word, since she'd actually finally let herself acknowledge that Sai was in the right and had lent him her support once again. He breathed a small sigh of relief, even now, disguising it as a slight cough so the board of directors wouldn't have any reason to turn their multifarious gazes on him. Vanai was not a person you wanted to be on the bad side of... especially when you slept in the same bed. He hadn't precisely feared for his life... but the hostility in the atmosphere had felt like enough to choke a small animal. But that was all in the past... now Vanai was an Isolationist too... if one with puritanical leanings, but at least she was in his camp. Despite his strong words to Cyprus on the matter, Sai didn't know if he could truly have gone up against Cervantes if he did not have Vanai's support... fine words and ideas not withstanding, if he could not unite his own house to bring peace, what chance did he have of uniting the world to bring peace? None... none at all.
Finally the meeting came to a close and Sai could shut off the screen and start his real workday. He groaned and stretched in his chair and placed a request to one of his secretaries to bring him a few iced drinks. Without rising, he immediately got to work on the seemingly endless supply of paperwork he had to personally overview, review, sign and countersign to apparently keep the entire company running smoothly all at once. One of the qualities that had always served Sai well, throughout school, aboard the Archangel and now at CWM was that he only rarely allowed himself to be distracted from getting the job done right, in as efficient a manner as possible. Not once did he think about taking a late lunch because he'd missed his normally scheduled break... he'd just have to eat more at dinner, because the paperwork could not wait. He worked and worked, not even glancing up from his desk as the secretary brought in the tray of various iced drinks... the type didn't really matter, he just needed something to sip to keep his throat moist. He didn't even look up from the papers until his desk pinged several times in rapid succession. Goddamn, its that late already? Damn meetings... I didn't get even half of my day in because of that tripe. I was really looking forward to checking in with Dr. Bates about the Cataphract and Archmage projects, but I guess I'll have to wait for tomorrow. Its six thirty now... I have to get moving or I'll be late for dinner... and that is not what I want. Vanai'd prolly force me to sleep outside again if I stood her up for a dinner we'd been planning for more than a week.
Quickly shuffling the paperwork into completed and un-completed piles, he secured them both in the locking drawers of his desk... while the paperwork was not strictly confidential, there was no sense in just leaving it lying about for anyone to see either... even though his office was just about the most secure room in the building. He got up, stretched his aching back and grabbed his sportsjacket from its peg on the wall. He tapped a button on a small remote device he kept in one pants pocket that would alert his security detail to the fact that he was headed down to the garage and then stepped out of his office. He waved goodnight to his three secretaries and to the senior staff that worked in the offices around his before taking the executive express elevator directly down to the garage. Despite only two or three minutes having passed since he sent the signal, his guards were already waiting for him, prepped and ready to go. Three of them rode in the limosuine with him, while four more rode ahead on motorcyles and four more behind in a SUV. He was unused to sharing the limosuine with other people, but fortunately the new guards seemed about as talkative as statues and he was able to avoid any small talk. At least until the convoy passed through one of the small coastal towns between the CWM complex and the small airfield where the helicopter was. Initially Sai had wondered why the helicopter didn't just take him directly to work, as there were several helipads on site at CWM. Cyprus had smirked ever so slightly, but it had been Sgt-major Glory who'd explained. Apparently it would be exponentially easier for potential enemies to figure out that someone important was being flown in the helicopter if it flew directly from the mansion to work and back... it would be an obvious target. By leaving at a seperate airfield, potential assassins would never be quite sure if the helicopter was carrying Sai or not.
As they passed along on the highway through the center of the town of about three or four thousand people, Sai happened to glance out one of the armored car windows to see a large crowd gathering on the beach side of the road. There looked to be at least forty or fifty people all grouped together, but what caught Sai's eye was the Blue Cosmos t shirts many were wearing and the improvised weapons... chair legs, broom handles, claw hammers and the like... that many members in the crowd brandished wildly. Plainly this was not a routine Blue Cosmos rally... something was up. "Stop the car." Sai ordered as they drew nearer to the crowd. The Blue Cosmos riot... for that was certainly what it seemed to be... was forming into a doughnut like shape, leaving a small hole in the middle. Sai could not see who or what was in that hole but given the apparent mood of the crowd, he did not want to wait till the morning paper to find out.
"But sir..." one guard started to say. Sai twisted about and locked eyes with the man, just like he had observed Cyprus to do when he was in deadly earnest. It was amazing what a little bit of direct eye contact could do... astoundingly few people could tolerate being stared in the eye, especially when the person staring at them had both a stronger force of will and a great deal of charisma... like Sai did. Certainly the guard... even though he massed about double what Sai did and was a good seven inches taller... could not take the pressure. He looked down and to the side.
"Stop the car." Sai repeated, slowly and very firmly.
"Yes, sir." the guard replied. He raised a hand to his ear and touched the radio transmitter hidden there. "Unannounced stop. Right here. Code Alpha Sigma. Everyone stay sharp." the Limosuine bled speed and coasted to a stop just a few meters behind the outermost rank of the crowd, who turned around with interest, as it was hardly every day when a very expensive looking white limousine pulled over for no apparent reason, especially an escorted one. Sai wasted no time... he opened the door himself without waiting for a guard to do it and stepped out, much to the dismay of the guards. Sai stepped out of the limo and walked briskly over to the nearest member of the crowd... a burly man wearing a Blue Cosmos sponsered T shirt with the sleeves ripped off. The shirt was white, with the Blue Cosmos globe on the back, with the words "It's not Blue enough for me." written underneath. The man was brandishing a large sledgehammer in one hand as he slowly pushed the smaller people in front of him out of his way. Well, that was what he was doing until Sai stepped forward and placed a hand on his free arm.
"What do you want?" the burly man said testily, turning around to reveal the front of his shirt, which had a normal blue and green depiction of the earth on it, with the caption "Satisfied with the World?". "Who the hell are you?" the man demanded, seeing a young man, certainly not older than nineteen or so, clad in a very expensive looking business dark blue suit with a black tie and white shirt that practically screamed custom tailored.
"What's going on here?" Sai asked in return, meeting the angry gaze of the man steadily and without apprehension. It wasn't all personal courage either... Sai knew that if the man made as if to swing the hammer at him he'd be taken down faster than he could blink by the five or six guards now clustering around the limosuine and looking on with unamused eyes. The rioter flicked his gaze past Sai and noticed the guards as well... uniform in their grey suits, red ties, off white shirts and dark sunglasses. They practically radiated professional menace. The rioter recalculated his inital impulse, which was to send the kid in the suit sprawling into the dust with a bloody nose and decided that maybe courtesy was the better part of valor.
"Isn't it obvious? We found one of them space monsters lurking around. Don't know how we missed him before... he's an obvious Coordinator. Damn it, and to think he used to live two houses down from me for months and I never knew it. Just goes to show, you can't trust nobody until you do a blood test these days." the man said grudgingly. "We're going teach the bastard a good long lesson... a lesson he will take to his grave. Which is being dug as we speak." he nodded to where a seperate party of men with shovels were scooping out a shallow indentation near the top of the beach where it met the road.
"So this is a lynch mob. What proof do you have that this man is a Coordinator. Where is he?" Sai asked, feeling a great deal of irritation and even outright anger welling up inside him. It was because of people like this that Blue Cosmos had had such a negative image after the last war.
"You can tell just by looking at him!" the man protested, shoving his way through the crowd and gesturing for Sai to follow... he'd almost reached out to grab the kid but then remembered the unsmiling men in grey suits. Sai followed his impromptu guide to the center of the ring of angry rioters. "Ain't it obvious?" the man said with grim relish. "Look at that hair! Look how blond it is! That is no natural color, you have to admit. And his eyes, they're red! No natural being has red eyes!"
Sai looked where the man was pointing, to where another man, who looked to be in his middle to late twenties, was held pinned to the ground by four others, while a fifth took his time beating him with fists and feet, pausing every so often to let a new rioter step forward to enact their own private form of justice. Indeed the man did have very golden blond hair, pale like white gold. But he was already beaten into semiconsciousness and Sai could not make out the color of his eyes. Not that it mattered. Even if it was a Coordinator, Sai couldn't just let the man get beaten to death and then buried in an unmarked grave... he may have been Blue Cosmos, but he was no murderer. This was just a man, not a monster. "CEASE THIS FARCE AT ONCE!" Sai said loudly. Few paid him any attention.
"Who the hell do you think you are, kid? You can't give us orders!" the big man who guided him here said rudely, shoving his jaw out and reaching out a hand to push Sai away.
"Mr. Zunnichi! You have a call from your wife!" one of the security guards shouted. The crowd hadn't been paying much attention before, but now the beach was as silent as the graveyard it was supposed to become. The man kicking the Coordinator on the ground stopped in mid stomp and almost fell over from surprise. The man reaching out to push Sai away froze as if he'd been turned to ice.
"My name is Sai Zunnichi, son in law of Cervantes Zunnichi." Sai said calmly and clearly, taking his business card from his wallet and showing it, front and back, to the crowd around him, who were all staring at him quite fixedly. "As for who the hell I am, currently I'm one very pissed off and irritated Senior Vice President of CWM and a very disappointed Chapter Master of the Blue Cosmos organization in Hawaii. Who the hell are you, now?"
"No... n... no one that deserves your notice, sir!" the burly man stammered, confronted by possibly the second or third most respected man in all of Blue Cosmos, the very heir to the leadership of the organization. Sai noticed that the man was suddenly sweating freely.
"We'll see about that." Sai told the man shortly. "You there... release that man... now!" Sai ordered and the four who'd been holding the supposed Coordinator to the ground lept back as if the man's skin had suddenly turned to red hot iron. Sai stalked over to the prone man and checked him... despite heavy bruising to the chest and facial regions, the man was merely unconscious, not seriously harmed. Sai had arrived before the crowd could really get started in their pogrom. Sai studied the supposed Coordinator's hair closely and saw several things which confirmed his suspicions. As a last check, he peeled back one eyelid and stared into the eye of the man. There was a definite reddish hue to the pupil, but it was more like a large concentration of flecks on a brownish background, not a true red. Not that the Blue Cosmos fanatics around him had bothered to look too closely... no, of course not. Why look closely when you could beat a helpless and likely innocent man to death and feel much better afterwards? "I am extremely disappointed with every man and woman here." Sai said quietly, but not so quietly that the crowd could possibly miss a word.
"Why, sir?" the big man with the sledgehammer worked up the gumption to ask.
"This is no Coordinator, you idiot. When you look closely, you'll see that his hair coloration is dyed that way and that his eyes are flecked red, not pure red, something which though rare is quite within the realm of nature." Sai let out a breath and shook his head in exasperation... this was going to be a huge stink bomb when the story reached the newspaper. At least he'd managed to stop them before they killed an innocent man. He'd had no idea things were getting so tense... obviously he needed to be spending more time at the organization rallies than in the office... he couldn't let things get even further out of hand or else he'd never be able to enact his Isolation plan, which required unity of the people, not rampant paranoia and witch hunting, things which served Cervantes's goals. "You all came very close to becoming murderers today. I hope you are all aware that todays actions will have consequences... serious consequences for some of you. I can promise you that. Now... disperse and return to your homes and workplaces. You should all be very ashamed of yourselves... I certainly am. Blue Cosmos is better than this. Reflect on that." God, its like lecturing schoolchildren. But hopefully at least a few of them will take what I said to heart... thats the best I can hope for.
"Sir, your wife is still on the line!" one of the guards called again. Sai turned, his mind reorienting... he was going to be late for dinner now. A sudden thought occured to him. It's really the least I can do, though it doesn't even begin to recompense the poor guy for his ordeal today. Maybe I can at least mitigate the damage somewhat though.
"Just a minute! You and you, bring this man to the car and give him first aid and make sure he doesn't have any serious injuries. You and you... find the local Blue Cosmos leaders... I want the names of every person who participated in the riot on my desk before I get to work tomorrow. And you, with the phone... tell my wife to set an extra place at the table tonight... we're having a special guest for dinner." Sai ordered. he thought for a moment more. "You!" he pointed at yet another guard as men in grey suits started dashing around to follow his barked orders. "Find appropriate attire for my guest there... tell them to bill Sai Argyle." He then turned and trudged back to the limo. I just hope Vanai is in a good mood...
Meanwhile, about four or five miles out to sea from the small private island where the Zunnichi mansion was located, a small object bobbed up and down on the ocean swells. A few birds swooped by overhead, one even diving down to skim to an awkward stop next to the object, which was colored white with a large black section on one end. The bird could not make heads nor tails of the strange object though it did look like a very large dead fish in coloration and approximate size, so it decided to take a few quick pecks to test the waters, so to speak. It's efforts were sharply rebuffed, its hooked beak unable to find purchase in the soggy but slick hide of the object. Frustrated, the bird decided to find better, easier prey elsewhere and it turned its head in preparation for taking off again. It never knew what hit it, as one hand of the object suddenly lashed out faster than the bird could blink and crushed its neck in its fist. Having been woken by the prodding of the bird, the figure had struck out instinctively, though now he regretted the action, because of what it revealed about his subconscious. He really was just a cold, programmed killer, despite what he'd learned about himself recently. Reorienting himself in the water so that he could see better, he peered out through the fogged and half flooded helmet. The flight suit was supposed to be air tight, but during the cataclysmic events that had eventually led to him awakening in the ocean, the face shield had cracked widely, which allowed the water to slowly seep in. There was land ahead... some sort of large building, though of what sort he could not tell... though he was deisgned and built to be tougher than any human by far, eight days swimming and drifting almost nonstop through the ocean, without food, drink or sleep, had reaped its toll on him as well. That tropical storm two days back hadn't helped matters, though it had pushed him several hundred miles closer to his goal, which was to the better, even as it exhausted him. Slowly, painfully, he started to paddle towards land. He was free at last and now he found that his only option was to offer his services to another cause... how bitterly ironic.
"So, what's your name?" Vanai asked the bruised man who walked in the door behind Sai. Well, walked was perhaps putting it a little too strongly... the man staggered more than once coming up the stairs and would have fallen if not for the arm of one of the new guards thrown around his shoulder. Vanai tapped her foot on the ground ever so slightly... something Sai of course picked up on immediately and winced. She'd be having a good talk with him after dinner and after their guest left... but he supposed it was about as good a situation as he could have hoped for. She hadn't refused his guest entry, she hadn't flown into a raging fury and she hadn't locked him out, so he figured he was still ahead of the game.
"My name...?" the man replied slowly, clearly still recovering from his beating, not that Sai blamed him... he'd really been worked over by fists and feet and though there was no permanent damage he could hardly expect the man to be one hundred percent so soon. The man shook his head and seemed to gather himself. "My name is Lawrence. Lawrence Niven. Please, call me Larry."
"Pleased to meet you Larry. My name is Vanai and I see you've already met my husband Sai." Vanai replied, not mentioning their surname. She assumed Sai had informed his guest as to just who she was and she didn't feel the need to throw her superior breeding in his face... especially after the beating it had already taken. Though she knew many people regarded her as a cold hearted and spoiled bitch, she knew they were wrong. She had a compassionate side too... one she kept ruthlessly repressed most of the time, but it was there. Sai had found it, after all. It wasn't too much of a stretch for her to feel some pity for this man, set upon by his friends and neighbors over a misunderstanding and beaten unconscious... perhaps even to his death if her husband hadn't happened by. She wasn't particularly happy that Sai had invited him home for dinner, but she could recognize the ploy for what it was... a tacit apology and an attempt at political damage control. When Larry told his story to the media, as he invariably would, perhaps this dinner and the hospitality she and Sai showed him would soften his words against Blue Cosmos. It was worth a try anyway.
"Yes, I have. I owe him my life it seems. If he hadn't come along when he did I'd be taking a dirt nap right now." Larry replied, managing a slight smile. Vanai cocked her head to the side slightly... he hadn't reacted like most people. Many people immediately commented on how young she and Sai were, to be married already and with her pregnacy beginning to show, but Larry had just accepted the words without even a blink. "And now he's invited me over to this beautiful house of yours and introduced me to a gorgeous woman the likes of which I had never thought to see outside of myth. Truly, I owe your husband a debt." Vanai found herself smiling a little at the flattery... Larry plainly knew how to pay a good compliment. She appraised him once again. Without the purplish-red bruises on his face and neck, he would probably be quite handsome. He was no Sai, nor near to most of the young men she had hung out with ever since she reached puberty, but he wasn't bad looking either. He was dressed in new clothing, casual-formal wear from one of the higher priced department stores, no doubt bought by Sai to replace his bloodstained clothing... another attempt at damage control.
"Well, why don't we come in and sit down for a drink or two while we wait for the finishing touches to be made to dinner?" Sai said leadingly, guiding Larry into the foyer and then around towards the main dining area and patio.
"I'll catch up to you in a few minutes, love." Vanai told him. "Why don't you take Larry out onto the patio and have some men talk while I make the final preparations?" she continued, pitching her voice just slightly warmer, not enough that anyone who did not know her would recognize, but enough to tell Sai that she knew what he was doing and that she would do what she could to help, though he still wasn't off the hook for interrupting the original plan for the evening, which had promised to be a good deal more... intimate.
"Good idea, I could do with a little bit of air to clear my head after the events of today." Sai muttered half to himself. He noticed Larry was looking around with unconcealed interest at the richness of his surroundings... the marble and rare mahogany walls, the floor tiles made from mica and bluish granite, the original artwork on the walls, each piece worth more than a middle class family made in a year... it had awed him too at first, even growing up as a rich kid like he had. He showed Larry out through the main dining area onto the patio, with its panoramic views of the sea, with the bigger islands low greenish humps in the distance during the day. It was past dusk now, and visibility was about a half to three quarters of a mile. The sound of the sea rushing into the crash against the white sand beach always helped Sai calm down after a long day of work. Collapsing gratefully into a deck chair, he flipped up the hinged panel of one armrest to reveal an intercom. He pushed one of the three buttons, the white one. Almost instantly the precisely modulated voice of one of the butlers came on the line.
"Something I can get for you, sir?" the butler asked.
"An after work special please." Sai ordered immediately. He then turned to look at Larry, who was gogling at him in shock. Sai smiled disarmingly. "You get used to it after a while. Anything to drink?"
"Uhm... yeah. I'll take a rum and coke. Heavy on the rum... its been a rough day." Larry replied after a moments thought, gingerly lowering himself into a chair nearby.
"You get that?" Sai asked, having held down the intercom button the entire time.
"Yes, sir. One rum and coke, heavy on the rum and one vodka with cranberry juice and two limes. I'll be out in two minutes." the butler replied. Sai released the button, flipped the armrest cover back over and leaned back. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment before remembering he had a guest.
"Pardon me... I don't often have people over for dinner or drinks." Sai said in apology.
"Don't worry about it." Larry replied instantly. He waited a few moments. "I never really stopped to take the time to say thank you for saving my..."
"Don't worry about it." Sai said, cutting Larry off. "I could hardly just drive by and let an innocent man get beaten to death over a misunderstanding by paranoid neighbors. It is truly a sad thing, what this war is driving people to do, even to longtime friends. I had no idea things were this bad here... I mean, everyone knows Orb is a hotbed of conflicting politics, but I had thought Hawaii to be more stable."
"You and me both." Larry said, staring out to sea, his eyes watching an oddly shaped piece of what looked like driftwood about a mile and a half out that was slowly drawing closer. He shook his head slightly and refocused on the young man who had pulled his fat... what little of it there was... out of the fire just a few hours earlier. "I mean, I knew Bruce and the guys were political activists, but I never knew just how political or how active. One moment we were all sitting in the bar, laughing and joking after a hard day doing road work and the next they're coming at me with baseball bats and broken bottles, shouting "Coordinator scum" and carrying on like a mob of raving madmen. I tell you, I was scared they were going to murder me on the spot. I mean, they'd all given me some crap about my hair and eye color before, but something about the lighting in the bar just seemed to set them off. Maybe it was cause Bruce's boy got himself killed at Carpentaria... I dunno."
"Yeah... Carpentaria was one hell of a mess." Sai acknowledged, pausing as the butler came out with the drinks and set them down between the two men. The butler bowed and half turned before looking over his shoulder at Sai.
"Lady Vanai wished me to remind you that dinner will be served in exactly fifteen minutes. She implored me to urge you not to be late." the butler said, bowed again and then left. Sai winced, just enough for Larry to notice.
"Woman trouble?" Larry asked after the butler was out of earshot.
"Let's just say that my little roadside stop wasn't factored into the game plan for tonight and Vanai never was the best at improvisation. She'll give me a solid talking to later, but don't worry about it... young though we may be, I think our bond is a lot stronger than some people twice our age." Sai answered. "You sounded like you knew what you were talking about when you said "woman trouble". You married?"
"I was." Larry looked down, the memory still searing into his heart like a nuclear fireball. "She died... a while ago. It was... during the surprise attack."
"I was in Pearl Harbor at the time too... god, what a disaster that was." Sai said sympathetically. "I was lucky... so many more were not. I'm sorry for bringing it up."
"No, no it's all right. It was a long time ago." Larry said. He caught what he said and hurried to correct it. "I mean, the months have passed like years ever since the war has started again... even a week feels like forever ago."
"I know what you mean. This damned war... it's being fought the entirely wrong way. The people in charge of the Earth Alliance are being led around by the nose by a certifiable psychopath, bent on genocide. How they can think that any strategy formed by such a man will lead to peace beyond the peace of the mass grave is beyond me." Sai said, allowing more bitterness than he'd meant to into his voice. He studied Larry for a moment... he seemed like a bit more than just the hardworking construction worker he had alluded to being. "Are you politically active? Pardon me for asking, but I don't want to offend you by discussing a touchy topic."
"Well, I'm no rebel, but I do have a tendency to speak up for my views... which tend to run a little counter current here in the Earth Alliance..." Larry said, looking around almost furtively. "You could say I'm not happy with the way the war is being run either."
"Glad to hear it." Sai said happily. "If more people thought like you did then I would feel a great deal more confident in the future."
"More people do think like I do... they just all happen to live in Orb, which is under martial law right now." Larry said, with a grin bare of humor. "A bunch of them live up in space too, if you know what I mean."
"Let me be frank with you, Larry." Sai sipped his drink and leaned forward. "I'm a member of Blue Cosmos... an influential member I'd like to think. But I'm not like those goons who tried to kill you on the beach today. I don't hate Coordinators as a people. Theres a few of them I wouldn't mind throwing off a tall cliff, mind you, but overall, I like Coordinators. I admire them and their achievments and I respect them for holding as true to their ideals as they have during this chaotic war. Hows that for counter current?"
Larry took his time in answering... his first impulse had been to bolt and run the moment the Blue Cosmos name hit the air... but then he'd sized up Sai again. He was just a guy... a kid of about nineteen with more maturity and wisdom than any of the guys Larry had worked with ever since he came to Hawaii, shortly after his wife died. And while Larry might have tested the political waters with his words, Sai had just thrown himself directly into the pool and bared his breast to him, politically speaking. "I'd say that you aren't the only person on this patio with those opinions, Sai." I can think of a few Coordinators that could do with some cliff diving... Elsman... Jule... Zala... Waltfeld... the bloody traitors. "Then tell me... if you were in charge, how would you change things?"
"First thing I'd do is call a cease fire. Both sides need that... ZAFT and the EA need a few weeks of being able to sit back without looking over their shoulders for hidden dangers if peace is ever to be given a chance." Sai said immediately. "During this cease fire I would send an ultimatum to the PLANTS. Its simple... leave Earth or be forced off. I would offer to pay for Coordinators to leave Earth and return to the plants, all Coordinators, everywhere. I don't want Coordinators on Earth, I think these last few wars have proven that we cannot coexist... the existence of Blue Cosmos is further proof, as if anyone needed it. Coordinators belong in space, Naturals belong on the Earth and Moon. It's simple. The only way to ensure lasting peace is to utterly Isolate one side from the other... like sending children to two seperate time outs in seperate rooms. I don't expect the PLANTS to bend to the ultimatum, it would seem to them too much like surrender. But at least I hope to have evacuated as many of the remaining civilian Coordinators as possible... I don't want any more massacres like Carpentaria. I would then gather my forces into a centralized, well organized and supplied military force, and use this hammer to slowly push the Coordinators off Earth... with as few casualties on either side as possible. It will require an entire reshaping of the organization and tactics used by the EA, but it is a necessary change I believe."
"Say you could push ZAFT off Earth. What then?" Larry asked speculatively. This is new... not once did he mention using WMDs, even though they would be the simplest way of ensuring victory on Earth. Is he really part of Blue Cosmos? And just how "influential" is he? He certainly seems to be rather rich.
"Pushing ZAFT off Earth is the easy part." Sai admitted. "Next I would build massive defensive fortifications and weapons, both on Earth and in Earth orbit... a sort of modern Great Wall, if you will. It will be expensive and the temptation to use the weapons for offense will be great, but with ethical and moral world leaders on both sides I believe those temptations can be overcome. Space will be divided up into strict Natural or Coordinator zones... no contact will be allowed between the two peoples. Any attempt by a Natural to enter a Coordinator zone or vice versa will be met with firm warnings followed by immediate and deadly force. There will be no messages... no trade... no emmigration or immigration. We will be seperate... because that is the only way to perserve peace. By Isolation." Sai said proudly. "Thats a rough outline of my strategy, but I think it's feasible, don't you?"
"It seems to rely a lot on the ethics and morality of the world leaders... maybe the PLANT council would work well with it, but what about the EA leaders? I can't see them going along with this plan. And how do you plan to implement this Isolation of yours? You talked of it like it was a forgone conclusion. Do you know something I don't about the EA political climate?" Larry asked. Trading one madman for another... no trade, no messages or contact... how can he possibly consider that feasible in modern day society? The only reason the PLANTS were built at all was to make in space what the nations of Earth did not have the resources to make on Earth... they were never designed to be a seperate nation, totally self sufficient. We may have taken many steps towards self sufficiency, but to be completely alone, with no trade... we couldn't survive that... it would be a death sentence, a slow, choking, agonizing death but a death nonetheless.
"Let's just say that Blue Cosmos has a great deal more influence on the way the EA runs than most people want to believe... and that Blue Cosmos is not nearly the united organization outsiders think it is." Sai said with a small smile of satisfaction. "My father in law's days of genocidal war are numbered... in a few months I will have garned the political support I need to oust him and his cronies from their positions as driving forces of this war. It should not take more than a year past that for the Isolation to go into full effect."
"Your father in law...?" Larry trailed off, a vise tightening around his heart. His hand casually slipped into the pocket of his new pants and felt through his wallet until he found the credit card he was looking for. Except it wasn't just a credit card, but a very highly advanced form of knife, almost undetectable by even the most advanced PLANT security systems. And he wasn't on the PLANTS anymore. "Just who are you exactly?"
Sai looked puzzled. "I thought you knew... oh, you must have already been unconscious by then. My pardon. My name is Sai Zunnichi. My wife is Vanai Zunnichi. My rather embarassing father in law is Cervantes Zunnichi, who as you probably know is the president of Cosmos Weapon Manufacturers...though you probably did not know... and please don't spread this about... but he is also the leader of Blue Cosmos."
Out of the frying pan, into the FIRE! Larry jerked slightly. Of course his name wasn't Lawrence Niven... who was actually a science fiction writer from centuries ago... a little known one in modern society, which is why he'd chosen the name as his cover. No, his name was Henri Burton and he was what was commonly referred to as a spy. He'd served in the mobile suit core during the last war, eventually working his way up to becoming one of the elite red coats after he personally killed five Strike Daggers during the battle of Jachin Due. He'd joined the military because of the tragedy at Junius Seven, which had claimed the life of his wife Magdelene, along with their daughter Lily. After the last war he'd found he no longer had a taste for mobile suit combat and had found himself diverted into intelligence, eventually ending up sent to Hawaii as a deep cover agent assigned to watch the fleet activities at Pearl Harbor. Ever since the insane nuclear devastation of the city, he'd been on high alert and the strain had started to get to him... as evidenced by the sloppy dye job he had done on his blue-white hair the night before and the badly maintained brown contacts which had allowed his natural eye color to seep almost entirely through. It was sloppiness that had turned Bruce and the others on to him... not accident. He'd thought he was a goner, but then found himself saved... by the very unlikliest of people, he had just learned. This was truly an opportunity... ZAFT had been after the people behind the EA leadership ever since the attack on Junius Six... now he finally knew who they were... and better yet, had at least two of them at his mercy.
"What's the matter? You seem distraught?" Sai asked, concerned by how his guest had seemed to jerk away from him and was no watching him very warily. Larry shook himself slightly and a wide grin slowly climbed across his face.
"It's nothing. Sorry to worry you... just my bruises acting up a bit. Hey, could you do me a favor and call those guys that gave me first aid over? I'd really like to thank them too... this stuff the gave me, its really helped get rid of the pain. Oh... but could you help me walk... I don't know how steady I am... that rum went right to my head, I think." Larry said, still fingering the credit card-knife... all it would take was a flick of his fingers and he'd have a two inch laser sharpened blade in his hands.
"No problem. Why don't we head inside anyway. I'll call the guards responisble over and then we can talk with Vanai a little bit before dinner." Sai said comfortingly, standing up and then helping Larry gingerly to his feet, slipping one arm over the taller man's shoulders and letting Larry put one arm over his. Larry kept the other hand in his pocket and they limped slowly into the dining room. Sai hit the intercomm on one wall as they entered and requested that the guards who had rendered first aid to Larry come to the dining hall. Within twenty seconds both men had appeared... they looked at Larry warily but saw nothing more than a bruised and slightly lame man with a big smile on his face slowly limping over to them one hand outstretched, the other in his pocket. They had of course searched him while rendering first aid and had found no weapons on his body or in his clothes, so they were relaxed. One even held out his hand to shake Larry's. It would be the first and last major mistake of the man's career.
Henri gripped the man's hand tightly, applying a good deal of pressure. He shook up and down once... then yanked the man towards him with all his strength. Relaxed and unwary, the man was easily pulled off balance, stumbling forward. henri whipped his hand out of his pocket, his fingers flicking the blade of the concealed knife out of its sheath and slicing it into the Natural's jugular. He ducked under the crimson spray and kicked the dying man into his surprised friend, bringing the knife back around and darting forward to bury it in the heart of the second guard. As both dead men dropped to the floor Henri went low and scrabbled at their jackets, finding the 9mm pistols exactly where he expected them to be, in underarm holsters. He yanked the fully loaded weapons out, dropping his knife to the floor in favor of the deadlier weapons. Barely four seconds had elapsed and Henri was already spinning back towards Sai and Vanai, who had been talking in tones too low for him to hear in the doorway to the kitchen. They were now staring at him with aghast expressions on their faces... Henri could not help but chuckle a little.
"If I were in Blue Cosmos, this would be where I shouted "For the Preservation of our Blue and Pure World!"." Henri said with savage amusement. "Though given my present company I guess that phrase might be a little redundant."
"What the hell are you doing, Larry? What is this?" Sai protested, shocked by the sudden inexplicable violence.
"My name is not Larry. My name is Henri Burton. I am a Coordinator, a red elite and a spy for ZAFT. That mob on the beach had it right, but you saved me anyway. I suppose I should be grateful." Henri replied grimly, pointing one gun at either of them.
"But why? Weren't you listening to me, outside? I'm trying to stop this war too? Why would you threaten me?" Sai asked, reeling mentally. The mob had been right, Larry... Henri... was a Coordinator. And not only that but a self confessed spy too. And Sai had been stupid enough to bring the man into his own house, stupid enough to share his top secret political plans with him and stupid enough to trust his new guard service to take care of him. Sai tried to imagine the Hellhounds falling for a deception like this and could not envision it.
"Those ravings? If you truly believe those to be the solution to peace, you are as deluded as your father in law. I cannot allow either of you to continue to poison the world with your lives. Sadly, Cervantes Zunnichi is beyond my reach. You, however, are not!" Henri opened fire just a half second too late, Sai had seen what was coming and pulled himself and Vanai into the kitchen and behind the wall, out of the line of fire. Three bullets chewed their way into the kitchen cabinets on the far side of the room before Henri controlled his fire and ran forward, cursing. Sai scrabbled frantically for one of the multiple alarms scattered throughout each room of the house, but didn't need it... alerted by the sound of gunfire, the remaining nine members of the security detail came charging in, guns in their hands and eyes scanning for danger. They were among the best in the civilian world as bodyguards. But compared to a revenge driven ZAFT red coat they were just so many moving grey targets. Henri pounced onto a table and flipped head over heels over the initial shots fired at him, landing in a crouch and firing once with each gun, blowing out the throat of one man and putting a fat red hole in the temple of another. Not pausing for an instant he tossed himself into a lateral roll, bullets chewing up the floor behind him.
Rolling behind a couch, Henri stopped himself with an outstretched knee and kipped himself to a kneeling position, just high enough to shoot another guard once in the thigh and again through the heart before ducking back down as return fire blew couch stuffing all over the place. Still keeping his momentum going Henri feinted left and then rolled right back out along his original incoming path, shooting two guards in the ankles and groins, then firing again to kill in the upper torso. Four guards were left and Henri still had eight and nine shots left in his guns, respectively. He would not need them all. He was out in the open, almost equidistant between each of the four remaining guards, who were all ducking behind cover of their own before shooting at him. Henri jumped high to see over a couch, putting three bullets from his left gun into the man crouching behind its head and shoulders. On the way down he was grazed along his right arm by a shot and he retaliated by using his right hand gun to blow the offending guard backwards and out through the glass windows to the patio with four rapid shots. Two left and still plenty of ammo. The guards made a rush for him, hoping to get in under his range and take him down to the ground. They moved so slow it was almost funny. He stopped one with the remaining six shots in the left gun, excessive but satisfying as the man's entire chest was soaked red and gory as he flopped bonelessly to the floor. The man's partner actually managed to close the range, diving low under the four bullets from the right gun. The guard brought his gun up as Henri's pistols clicked back empty.
Henri kicked the gun from the man's hand, breaking the lower arm bone with one swift motion before leaning down and jabbing the man first in the eyes and then in the throat, blinding him and crushing his windpipe. Henri calmly looted two more pistols from the fallen and left the guard on the ground to strangle painfully to death... no less than a man who would guard such filth deserved. "There is no need to prolong your death, Sai. You cannot beat me. I am a Coordinator and you are just a Natural." Henri called into the kitchen.
"A good friend of mine... a former friend... had an answer for bullshit like that!" Sai replied, having used the time his guards bought him to draw out Cyprus's pistol from its drawer, much to Vanai's amazement. "People are not defined by their abilities alone"... thats what he said. And you, know, it really rings true." Sai took up the unfamiliar weight of the gun and sighted in on the doorway. "A Coordinator you may be, but if you think I'm going down without a fight, your as crazy as you think I am. Especially with my wife and soon to be child here with me. You know what it's like to lose your wife... how can you expect me not to fight back?"
On the beach outside, a figure in white with a black helmet slowly staggered forward. He'd finally made it to dry land and it was taking his legs a while to remember how to walk properly. After a few steps he jerked the helmet off and cast it aside, letting the water finally drain away from his chin and neck, revealing damp curly red hair and haunted green eyes to any observer who might be around. There didn't seem to be any though... everyone must be inside the palatial house just up the beach a bit. He took another wobbly step forward before half collapsing on his knees. He needed to find food and drink and rest soon or even he would give out. His previous tests had been brutal but he was still pretty damned sure that no one had designed him to swim across half the fucking pacific ocean in eight days, even stormtossed as he had been. Assuming he ever saw anyone in charge of the BCPU project again, he'd have to recommend it to them... it was sure to really weed the strong out from the weak. He was still half awake, just about to fall forward in exhaustion, when the sound of gunfire reached his still sensitive ears. Repeated gunshots were coming from the house... medium caliber handgun from the sound of it. Great, he'd been thrown out of one life or death battle, crossed half a freaking ocean and managed to fall into another life or death battle as soon as he hit dry land. He seriously contemplated throwing himself back into the water, where at least he would know peace. But the momentary insanity passed and he forced himself upright and into a shambling run towards the house. If he'd navigated right, then this was the location of the person he desperately needed to talk to... and he couldn't let that person die before he talked to them.
Henri walked slowly towards the doorway before suddenly diving through low, into a forward roll. A good thing he did too, because two bullets crashed by just over his head, tearing huge gouges out of the far wall of the dining area. Turning the roll into a front flip Henri assessed the situation. Target primary, Sai, was half crouched behind the island in the middle of the kitchen, large hangun in hand, trying to track him. Target secondary, Vanai, was cowering under the kitchen table a few meters behind Sai. I do know how it feels to lose a wife and child. I think it's time you learned how that felt too, Mr. Zunnichi. He took careful aim and fired with his left hand gun, but Vanai ruined the shot by jerking away as sson as she saw where his gun was pointing. Instead of taking her through the heart the bullet entered the meat of her shoulder and broke her collar bone before exiting in a spray of flesh and blood to ricochet off the floor and bounce away. Henri frowned and fired several more times, blowing chunks out of the table but unable to penetrate the thick wood to hit the soft flesh underneath.
"BASTARD!" Sai roared, standing fully upright and blasting away with the hand gun, the recoil making him wildly inaccurate. None of his shots passed within a hands breath of henri, though they did a great job of tearing up the kitchen around him. Henri took his time in aiming before shooting Sai in the top of his right thigh, not breaking the bone but causing a serious flesh wound and sending him screaming to the floor.
"Ooh... nasty. Leg wounds hurt a lot." Henri said without much sympathy as he stepped forward, putting one foot down on Sai's outstretched hand with a crunch before kicking the gun out of the now unresisting palm. "And a broken wrist too... my you certainly are racking up quite the injury list. Let me ease your suffering though... this won't hurt at all." Henri took careful aim at Sai's forehead. Before he could take the shot though a person unexpectedly ran into him and knocked him back against the cabinets. vanai had rushed forward, ignoring her own wound to tackle Henri around the waist, driving him back from Sai. "Touching but fruitless!" Henri gritted as his back spasmed suddenly. He ignored it and drove an elbow into the top of Vanai's head, stunning her. He then used a knee, square to her stomach to kick her away.
"The... bab...y!" she gasped, horrified but still stunned.
"A monster child anyway." Henri told her, now pointing his guns at her. He still did not get to fire. This time though, the cause was a little more distressing. Namely the fact that his entire body from the neck down suddenly went numb... because a short man with damp curly red hair and green eyes, clad in a white flight suit that looked positively waterlogged... had picked up the credit card-knife and thrown it into the back of Henri's neck, easily piercing the vertebrae and severing the spinal cord. "What?" Henri choked, unable to move. "Where..."
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, space monster." the short man in the white flight suit said blearily. He still retained enough control to take a few halting steps forward and crush Henri's skull against the wall before he passed out though. As he hit the floor the man managed one last sentence. "I'm here to serve the cause of peace and Isolation, Mr. Argyle... name is Ashino..."
Author Note: If you like my writing, I'd also recommend you try out some of Rihaku's stories. If anything I think his SEED fanfics are more creative than mine in a lot of ways and he certainly writes the charatcers very well. He's written three so far and they are all very good. Please read and review those as well, after you read and review mine.