Chapter 17 - Found
Mifune growled under his breath as he tied off the strip of cloth over the wound in his upper arm. God dammit, he could not believe that Iscariot was a traitor. How the hell had he gotten past the screening? And what did he think he was doing here? As soon as that last question was formed, he knew the answer – kill the Instructor before he was rescued. With another muttered curse, Mifune glanced around the room. Even as he started to the door he moved the back of his teeth in a pattern that switched his radio to the command channel. He waited until he heard the clicks that indicated Nishiwaki was on the channel. "Iscariot is the informer. He's the one that jumped the gun. Nakajima's dead and Shinomya is badly injured. I'm tracking Iscariot."
"Understood" was all he got back but in the next minute there was an override into the channels that only squad leaders could hear. "Iscariot has been identified as the informer. I repeat, Iscariot is the informer, do not trust him."
Mifune paused beside the door-frame. Where the hell did that damn traitor go? He slowly poked his head outside the door and verified that no one was in the hallway. Unsurprisingly it looked like almost everyone had been caught in the bedrooms and were easily being round up. He hoped they only had the one casualty tonight. Suddenly he caught the movement of a man ahead of him with a very large head. He could tell it was one of the team with the night gear on his head. The man didn't look backwards but proceeded down the hallway. Mifune grinned to himself, he didn't know whether to feel slighted or be glad that Iscariot thought he could be taken care of so easily.
Mifune turned the same corner he had seen Iscariot take earlier and froze. The man was standing in a hallway, no he was raising a gun! Mifune didn't even try to call out and stop him; just as Iscariot was aiming his gun, Mifune fired his. Iscariot fell without firing his weapon. Mifune ran to the doorway and then stopped just short of the entrance. He did a quick check behind him and didn't see anyone. He flipped the radio off. "Anyone in there?"
"Mifune, is that you? Its Iwase. I've found the Instructor but I need some light to see how badly he's been hurt."
"Let me report in first." Mifune switched on the radio. "This is Mifune. I'm with Iwase, Iscariot has been taken care of and Iwase found the Instructor." As he spoke he handcuffed the still breathing Iscariot and took his weapon belt and all other weapons from him. He then stepped over him and crouched down so that he could watch the hallway from the inside the room.
Suddenly Nishiwaki's voice came on over all the circuits. "Basic goal accomplished. All done except for cleanup. Take off your night vision goggles, anyone who wants can turn on lights."
Mifune looked over at Iwase who seemed to be draping the Instructor in something. "Iwase, go ahead and take your goggles off, we really can't see more than outlines in here, I'll turn on the lights." He saw Iwase take of his goggles and then he reached over to the light switch, closed his eyes and turned the lights on.
Iwase kept his eyes closed as he counted to 10. He knew he had to let them adjust to the change in light level. Then he opened his eyes and looked down. "No" was the weak protest that left his lips. He knew it was Haruka there in front of him on the floor but the only thing he recognized was the hair. Dirty, bloody and soiled. It was still the light fine hair he loved. The face – one eye was bruised and swollen so bad it couldn't have opened even if Haruka had been awake. Both eyes were black the result of a nose that looked more like a flattened pancake than a nose. Lips were busted and bleeding although he didn't think Haruka had lost any teeth. He could see into the mouth slightly as he seemed to have to breathe through it.
With trembling hands he reach out, not even thinking about what he was doing and unwrapped the jacket he had put over Haruka. Most of his body was purple and blue, the result of repeated beatings, a bloodied rag tied around his right arm indicated a bleeding wound while his left hand lay slight curled and very swollen Each finger seemed to point in a different direction and some of them seemed to manage to point in two different directions. He knew those fingers had been crushed. There were 2nd and 3rd degree burns under each arm and on his stomach. He could see the blood on the thighs without even turning Haruka over. Iwase tenderly wrapped him back up. Despite the fact that the people who had done this were most likely already dead he shook with the need to hit them, to deal back some of the damage they had done to Haruka. Where had he been when this was happening? Was he laughing with his sister at her graduation? Eating a cozy family dinner with her and his mother? How long had Haruka been tortured? The questions beat over and over at the shell of his anger and a picture of Haruka's battered body hung in front of his eyes. The anger he had been gripping to him broke and Iwase bowed his head.