Chapter 15: Lelouch
C.C. spent the next week under heavy guard---not because she was dangerous, but because she'd apparently regressed to a childhood that I would have preferred not to hear about. On the first day, she gave me a list of her 'talents'. She'd buried plague victims and could count to fifty. It got worse from there.
My former governess still liked pizza, so I ordered a few days' worth and had a fine shouting match with Misato over "breaches of protocol" when Section 2 nearly executed the pizza delivery man. No matter. It was a small price to pay for C.C.'s goofy smile when she licked the sauce and grease from her fingers.
That had been the extent of my contact with her. Asuka had absorbed most of my time, although perhaps I'd had other reasons for avoiding C.C....
Until now, that is. I took a breath and opened the door.
And here we go...
"H–hello, master "
I managed a halfhearted wave. The apartment looked like a old sci-fi set from the 1920s filtered through a Qabbalist's take on art deco. They'd painted it with NERV's customary blend of red, purple, and black. C.C. sat on the floor, cross-legged.
"Hi," I said.
The television–-which C.C. now referred to as "the box with the people in it"–-droned in the background:
Yesterday, a J.L.F. attack on Viceroy Kalaris's Shinjuku cleansing operation was averted by the actions of Sir Kururugi and...
C.C. traced lines on the couch with her fingernails.
"Master, did you by any chance bring...um...?"
Her eyes flicked hopefully to my briefcase. She avoided direct eye contact. I sighed and opened it.
"Yeah," I said. "Here."
I handed her the box. She grinned and inhaled the steam from the pizza. Hesitated.
Good gods.
"You have my permission to eat," I said.
C.C. flopped onto the floor and rested her head on her right hand while her left shoveled pizza into her mouth as quickly as it could. This was progress. A week ago, C.C. had squeaked and dived behind the couch when the TV turned on. Now, her eyes glazed over as the newscasters traded "insights" about whatever trivialities had slipped past the censors: Guinevere's newest boyfriend. An earthquake in Area 4. Clovis: A Study in Leadership had bombed at the box office.
This was not the woman I'd grown up with.
And in political news, the Purists have given up their campaign to remove Director Nunnally vi Britannia from the Jetalot Project--
"Don't change that " I said.
C.C. flinched. She changed the channel back.
–and have reoriented their party toward electoral concerns. In other news...
This was potentially bad. What was Schneizel playing at? For that matter, what was Nunnally doing?
"Sorry," I said.
A snarky comeback? Rolled eyes? A smirk?
Nope. C.C. bowed deeply and said that it was all her fault. I turned to Jeremiah. He gave me a helpless look at patted me on the shoulder.
And in another setback for the Women's Movement, former Viceroy Cornelia has failed to appear for the annual rally in Pendragon Square. Her continued absence has raised eyebrows in the military and the Foreign Office, but few speculate about the potential cause...
"Er...How's the pizza?"
"Great, master."
I forced a smile.
"To watch you eating it, you'd think that you never had a normal meal...."
"Actually, master, that's tr–"
"Never mind," I said.
A klaxon sounded before the farce went further.
"You called?"
Misato pretended that she hadn't heard me. Fuyutsuki actually hadn't heard me–-he was leaning over Aoba's workstation, where a network of red hexes with official-sounding labels like A-115 and G-230 honeycombed the monitor. Gendo didn't seem very talkative either.
I grabbed the nearest technician.
"Well?" I said.
She pointed at the viewscreen. At first, I saw red dots against a blue field. I looked more closely. The darker shades of blue formed into arms and legs. A body. Ripples of muscle. This must have been the tank where they kept the simulation bodies. Light blue blobs ascended on either side, and I recognized them as bubbles. Red dots swirled between them.
"And what are the red—Oh...." I said.
"Angel," Ritsuko called out.
Her eyes remained glued to Hyuga's console. Both hands whirred over the keyboard as she held a ballpoint pen between her teeth. She clicked the pen rapidly with her tongue. I was impressed.
"Breach in the 87th protein wall " Aoba shouted.
"The Pribnow Box is getting infiltrated "
"Evacuate Sigma Unit "
More technobabble followed. Just as I began to suspect that they were making it up as they went along, red beams lanced through the water. When they hit the infection, hexagons of light appeared. Water boiled where the two met. When the bubbles cleared, the Angel had spread. Ritsuko removed all oxygen from the box. Same result.
Gendo finally spared me a glance, and we exchanged a silent compromise.
"Cancel the alert," he said.
"But—"
"Cancel it," he repeated. "Inform the Emperor that we have experienced a malfunction. Launch the EVAs."
"Without pilots?"
"Yes, Major Katsuragi. Without pilots. Now."
Ritsuko looked up.
"Commander."
"What?"
"It's evolving," she said. "At this rate, it can spread extremely rapidly."
The angel punctuated her point by setting off another alarm.
"The MAGI— "
It was true. Three irregular pentagons showed up on the screen. Orange lines connected them. "CODE 263 hovered ominously at the top left corner....whatever that meant.
Pixel by pixel, the pentagons switched from blue to red like an excerpt from Robert McNamara's worst nightmare. The Angel absorbed MELCHIOR first. Ritsuko redoubled her typing. Red spots blinked onto BALTHASAR. More technobabble followed to no avail; BALTHASAR succumbed. The Angel began to gobble up CASPER.
"I've got a firewall up!" Ritsuko said.
The Angel stopped. Temporarily. CASPER clung to a single blue blip in a sea of red. We took a collective breath and realized that we were well and truly screwed. In the respite that followed, an incongruity that I'd banished to the back of my mind shot to the forefront.
"Dr. Akagi, where's your assistant?"
Ritsuko frowned.
"Maya Ibuki?"
"Yes," I said.
"I'm not sure..."
Conveniently, the viewscreen picked that moment to give us our answer. We saw Maya first: bound, gagged, and bruised. She appeared to be lying in the same room as the MAGI.
A white-haired man stood over her. He wore a cape-and-coat combination that looked vaguely like a straightjacket. A visor obscured his eyes. He threw out his hands and turned a pirouette, motioning to the computers behind him.
"Helllooooooooooo EVERYONE "
Gendo calmly turned to the bridge crew.
"Lieutenant Hyuga: flood the MAGI room with gas–"
"Nope " Mao said. "'Fraid not "
He grinned and yanked Maya's hair until he'd pulled her face next to his. He tapped her forehead.
"Sorry, Commander, but this helpful little lady told me all that I need to know about the MAGI system," he said. "If I wanted to, I could cut off the bridge's air supply. Howdjalike that?"
Gendo's steepled fingers pushed in and out like a pulsating jellyfish.
"Lieutenant Ibuki," he said. "If you betrayed NERV security information to this man, you will be shot—"
"Telepath," I said.
Maybe I imagined it, but I swear that I could detect an are-you serious? look from behind Gendo's trendy glasses.
"I'm not joking," I said.
"Ah," he replied.
Mao pointed a finger at me.
"Here's the deal Lelouch," he said. "Give me C.C. or I'll turn off the MAGI's defenses and let the Angel through."
Gendo smirked. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who saw grim humor in the situation.
"Has it occurred to you..."
"Mao," I said.
Gendo nodded.
"....Has it occurred to you, Mao, that if you disable NERV's defenses, you'll also destroy the entire world, including yourself and C.C.?" he said.
Mao's upper lip twitched.
"We'll hide underground."
"And you'll escape the blast site how, exactly?" Gendo said.
"Er...."
Mao suddenly kicked Maya in the ribs, hard. She must have come to the same conclusion Gendo had.
"I'm not an idiot!" Mao screamed.
Mao's fingers hovered over the MAGI terminal's keyboard, daring us to continue goading him. Gendo said nothing. His glasses flashed dramatically, and I reminded myself to buy an extra-reflective pair of Ray-Bans if we survived this.
Mao lowered his visor and leered.
"That shut you up pret--ty quickly, didn't it?" he said. "Angry? Frightened?"
Fortunately, Mao wasn't close enough to see the Commander's secret smile. The old bastard had just killed two birds with one stone, and he knew it.
Drat.
