Another long wait, sorry...
Kachou stood outside the building as a black Suburban swerved in. It was shot up, with plenty of bullet holes, shot-out windows and even one of the lights out of commission. Tom jumped out of the SUV, followed by the Japanese officers.
"What the hell happened?" Kachou asked, examining the 60 bullet holes in the vehicle.
"You call back the other officers?" Tom replied.
"Yes, they're on their way."
"I can see..." Natsumi added as a small car swerved in beside the Chevrolet. Yoriko and Aoi came out, along with another officer with a bloodstained uniform.
"Natsumi! Miyuki!" Yoriko said as she ran towards the two policewomen. "It was terrible! There was this black pickup following us and we only just managed to shake it off!"
Tom meanwhile, examined the officer's wound. "You were walking home?"
"Yeah." The officer answered. "This black jeep drew alongside and one of the passengers drew a pistol and fired. I got hit in the shoulder and collapsed to the floor. I managed to get a look at the vehicle before it fled. It was very big, and had a yellow bowtie on the back."
"Like that?" Tom pointed to the Suburban.
"Yeah." The officer nodded. "Only less... Shot up... What were you doing?"
"Don't ask. Yoriko and Aoi pick you up?"
"Yeah. Aoi helped to treat my wound before we took off for the station." Tom looked towards Aoi, who had blood on his hands.
"Better get that checked out good. We don't want you bleeding out on us."
"Yes sir." The officer marched towards the station.
"Looks like you were right Fortnell." Ken spoke.
"Yeah. Hopefully no one's been killed." Tom said as a convoy of vehicles turned into the parking lot. "OK Kachou, I want you to do a headcount of everyone coming in here. Anyone missing, flag it up and let me know. And give me the status on those SATs; Fujima's serious and he's gonna rocket over here while we're still recovering from the attack. Those mercs are gonna strike again when he's coming through, I know it."
"I'll get right on it." Kachou walked back into the building.
An hour later, most of the officers had come back to the station. However, a few officers did not make it, and spirits were not high among those who had lost a longtime colleague. Tom was sitting in his usual seat, deep in thought.
All of a sudden, Chie piped up. "How are we going to go up against all of that firepower?"
"Eh?" Natsumi wondered.
"You saw what they have. They've got a lot of automatic rifles. We only have revolvers and a few officers' pistols."
"They've got either frag grenades or a bazooka as well." A White Bike Trooper added. "When I was returning to the station, I saw the burnt-out wreck of a car..."
"Don't remind me!" Miyuki screamed, and the room fell silent, a silence broken by the White Bike Trooper's question.
"What do you say Tom? How do you think we're going to survive this?"
There was a long pause, before Tom replied. "I've got an idea."
"What sort of idea?" Chie asked.
"It might be a long shot, but even in gun-controlled Japan, I think I know where to find some firearms."
"What, are just going to ship them in from Gunsmith Cats in Chicago?" A policewoman sarcastically replied.
"No. But I'm going out to see if I can find somewhere where we can get more than what we have now." Tom declared as he got up and marched towards the door. Miyuki grabbed his arm.
"Are you crazy?" She asked. "If they catch you out there, they're going to kill you!"
"Maybe, but I still have to try."
"I can't lose you again!"
"Let go of me. I'm going out there and I'm going to drag you out there with me if you don't let go."
Miyuki let go of his arm. "Then I'm coming with you."
"Alright then, guess I'm coming along as well." Natsumi stood up and walked to the pair.
"Keep trying to raise the SATs." Tom ordered. "I know they're not responding, but they have to report in eventually. And no-one else move out of this damn building until we come back."
The roads were deserted as people were afraid to come out after the chaos of the surprise attack. Because of this, Tom, Miyuki and Natsumi had the road to themselves as they rode in the big Silverado pickup. They'd picked this vehicle to try not to draw attention to themselves in case any mercenaries were still prowling the streets.
"So what's your big idea then?" Natsumi asked from the backseat of the Chevy.
"I'm thinking maybe... We might be able to get some weapons from a place downtown. I'll use a crossbow or a hunting rifle if I have to, but I hope we can get something better than that..."
"Tom?" Miyuki asked. "You sound unsure. Is everything alright?"
Tom sighed. "I don't know if I can do this. I go for two years presumed dead, then I'm thrown straight back into the action. I don't know if I can still do the job I did."
"You're one of the best people I know for this. You've got the most military experience out of all of us. Why do you think you're not sure if you can do this...? Tom?"
"I think I saw something." Tom declared before turning the Silverado around.
"That was an illegal U-turn." Natsumi reported.
"Screw it, you really think anyone's going to be out enforcing the traffic laws after what's happened?" Tom replied as he pulled into a parking lot. The truck's headlights illuminated the building, revealing the sign which read WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL MUSEUM.
"So that's your plan?" Natsumi asked.
"Stay in the truck. Anyone comes, you keep the truck running ready for me." Tom said. He got out of the Silverado, grabbing a flashlight along the way. He marched up to a window and shone the flashlight through. There were quite a few weapons in there as part of the exhibits, weapons that could hopefully be fixed to fire again. This was his plan.
"Anything in there?" Miyuki asked as Tom slipped behind the wheel.
"Yeah, they got guns." Tom replied.
"What kind of guns?"
"The kind of crap our grandfathers fought with at Okinawa, but it's a start."
"I guess so. Any guns are better than trying to beat the mercs with riot shields and spoons."
"Yes. You're right."
"But what about the ammo?" Natsumi questioned. "We can't fire guns without ammo."
"If I remember, Morimoto's was the biggest ammo store downtown, stocked all kinds of ammo from 9mm to .50. He still running his operation?" Tom asked.
"Yes." Miyuki answered. "Illegally, but he's still in business."
"That's where we get the ammo. Now let's get back to the precinct."
"We have a problem." Yoriko declared as the trio walked back into the room.
"What is it?" Miyuki asked.
"We haven't been able to raise the SATs on the radio. We've lost contact with them."
A little pause. "Was Shouji with them?" Natsumi weakly said.
Yoriko only gave a weak nod. Nobody had the heart to tell her. Natsumi hastily excused herself from the room. Tom watched her as she went out. Turning back to the occupants of the room, he spoke, "You guys get some rest here. My best guess is that Fujima isn't going to want to hang around any longer than he has to, so it's all going to kick off in the morning. He's going to stick around to build his forces up to full strength and not a minute longer. We're going to need 200% from you, so rest up." With that, he left the room.
It was a few hours after the deadly attack on the Nagoya police stations, and the officers were still on edge. Daichi and Masaru were two officers working at a roadblock that had been set up to search vehicles trying to leave the city.
"License and registration please." Masaru asked a person in a sedan. The driver complied and handed him the documents. As he scanned through, he heard a shout from Daichi.
"Hey!" Daichi called. "I got something here."
"What is it?" Masaru asked as he handed the documents back to the driver and walked over.
"That car." Daichi replied as he shone his flashlight on a Cyber Gray Corvette ZR1. "That's Fujima's car."
"Looks abandoned." Masaru commented. "We should call in a tow truck, and advise other roadblocks that Fujima may be trying to leave the city in another vehicle."
"Yes." Daichi sighed.
"What's wrong?" Masaru wondered.
"That Corvette is such a powerful car." Daichi sighed. "How I'd love to hear that engine roar."
What happened next scared the crap out of the two. The powerful ZR1 suddenly burst into life, the sound of the supercharged V8 engine echoing off surrounding buildings. Before Daichi and Masaru could pull out their revolvers, the Corvette took off, burning rubber and throwing up a cloud of tire smoke.
Inside the NPA control room in Tokyo, Arizuka marched in. The staff were immediately alert and standing to attention.
"Come on people." Arizuka grunted. "NPA is all over me, especially since it's Kinoshita being held hostage. We need to get Fujima. Where is he?"
"We have police units in Nagoya searching for him sir." One sergeant reported.
"Not good enough." Arizuka responded. "Get the highway patrol. He might've already slipped out. And tell them to bring their fastest cars."
"I'll get right on it sir." The sergeant nodded before he picked up the phone on his desk.
"So why doesn't he just helicopter out?" Another sergeant asked.
"That ZR1 is faster than any helicopter, if you remember." An inspector replied.
"How about a jet?"
"He knows we've got the airports on lockdown."
"There were reports of police officers coming under fire in Tokyo, I think he's going to make his escape there."
"Sir!" The shout from the sergeant silenced everyone.
"What is it?" Arizuka interrogated.
"That was Nagoya police on the line, Fujima has been spotted and is now running."
The room now exploded into a flurry of activity as officials made phone calls and started sticking pins on a big map.
The sirens started wailing as police units responded to the calls of a dark gray Corvette speeding through. Other minor incidents were quickly ignored as officers dropped everything to rush to try and capture the wanted Fujima.
"Patrol Car 4, inbound!" Shiro yelled into the radio. He guided his patrol car through the streets to try to get ahead of the suspect. Pretty much everyone knew by now that if that Corvette got ahead of you, it wasn't even worth trying to keep up.
The ZR1 slid in from a side street, followed by two more police cruisers. Seeing his chance, he accelerated to get slightly ahead of the sleek supercar.
"This is 4, I'm going to try to slow him down, let's box him in."
All of a sudden, the Corvette nudged the rear quarter panel of the patrol car, sending it sliding sideways, and then pushed it along, forming a T. The ramp-shaped Chevrolet speared underneath the tall police car, and started to push it along.
"Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap!" Shiro cursed, scared as he floored the accelerator and tried to break free. The Corvette accelerated, further pushing the cruiser, then braked as it tipped onto its side. The second police car rammed into the wreckage of Shiro's cruiser, and the third car tried to swerve out of the way, only to run underneath a low garage door and shear the roof off.
"This is Patrol Car 4, we are officially, completely, totally, 100% screwed." Shiro panted as he watched the Corvette's four round taillights disappear into the distance.
Getting onto the highway, Fujima quickly saw a swarm of 10 police cars, a few sports cars, a really fast GT-R and a couple of police motorcycles all ahead of him. He simply darted through the vehicles, the Corvette hugging the road like a gecko, and then sped away as the highway patrol took up pursuit.
"Highway Patrol reports they have Fujima heading eastbound on the Tomei Expressway. The pursuit force is comprised mainly of patrol cars and bikes, but they have brought their fastest cars." The sergeant reported back in the room as he stuck a gray pin on the big map to represent the Corvette ZR1, followed by about fifteen white pins representing the police.
"I want air support on station within the hour." Arizuka ordered. "I also want any units near to Tokyo to head there to assist local forces. Tokyo's our last chance to catch him, we need everything we've got over there."
"Yes sir."
Back on the highway, the pursuit was still going on. No-one wanted to set up roadblocks, knowing what had happened to their counterparts in Osaka.
"This is helicopter 9-7, we are spinning up on the pad, we'll be over pursuit area in thirty minutes." Fujima heard every word on the radio in his car. He looked over to Kinoshita in the passenger seat, handcuffed to the grab rail, and then slammed 4th gear home. He floored it, rapidly accelerating to 300km/h (186mph) leaving the police units staring at the back end of the Corvette ZR1 as it sped into the night and towards Tokyo.
Hope this chapter was worth the wait!