Chapter 4
The shadow that lurked in the dark night disappeared as soon as Ken got out of the car and ran after it, the person following him had something familiar about him, but Ken couldn't pin point why he felt a connection it
The shadow that lurked in the dark night disappeared as soon as Ken got out of the car and ran after it, the person following him had something familiar about him, but Ken couldn't pin point why he felt a connection it.
When he stumbled across an old Galactor base a few days before he felt the shadow's presence in the dark abandoned auditorium while he check it out for signs of being taken over by someone else. The base looked to be abandoned in a hurry by Goon's from the way uniforms had been discarded and personal items strewed across floors. Things left in place like the occupant would be back any moment for it. In his inspection of the base he also found a store of explosives. So he set about destroying the technology left behind by Sosai X and Berg Katse. He'd managed to load up a disk of information to take back for Dr.Nambu to study about the former organisation.
Ken's guard had been up since he realized someone is watching him, and his every move through this part of the country side. He figured they had to be a spy and he intended to discover what this spy wanted from him.
Silently he pulled out his old birdrang and released the razor sharp blades in case he needed to use it. The birdrang he ad left with Joe at Cross Karakorum, he carried now as a reminder of his lost brother along with feather shuriken he picked up when they had finally decided to leave that begotten place. Ken didn't feel the need to go back to Cross Karakorum, the painful loss of his father and the events that followed taught him not to revisit those places.
Years of combat training made it easier for him to maintain his stealth as he moved through the undergrowth in the darkness, he felt the eye's on him still. The temptation to give away his position so the stalker would act and he could confront the shadow became more and more overbearing.
Coming up to the crest of a hill he could hear voices speaking in Burmese. Going even slower crouching down closer to the damp slipper ground Ken looked over the undergrowth to where the voices had been coming from.
There looked to be a permanent camp set up. Several huts and groups of organised soldiers with narrow muddy streets, highlighted by a few spotlights, the drizzling rain making the light obscure, still the light did give Ken a general outline of the camp.
This could be where the General that's been dealing in Galactors abandoned weapons and recruiting the scattered goons into his army could be hiding out. Well there's only one way to find out. He thought, making a further assessment of the camp. The barbed wire fence he could deal with, he looked to see if it was electrified as well.
Four guard towers, a few standard bored guards along the perimeters, and he saw one coming towards him and backed into the shadow of a tree.
The man stopped and looked around sharply, pointing his machine gun into the bushes close to Ken's position. He recognised the machine gun's make even in this light. Standard Galactor issue. The man didn't look to be Burmese.
Ken knew he had the right camp from seeing the soldier. He waited until the soldier looked away. In one swift fluid motion Ken grabbed him over the mouth first and them pulled his head back slit his throat with birdrang, pulling him backwards into the undergrowth he quickly took his uniform, cap and gun. He hid the body as best as he could without a shovel.
Confidently he made his way back into the camp keeping his head down as if to shelter his face from the light rain. A guard called out to him, Ken indicated it was all clear in that part of the rain forest. And he continued to walk toward the rowdy noise of the main entertainment area for the fighting troops. He saw a few more faces that didn't belong among the crowd of Burmese soldiers. A group of frightened looking young girls danced on a platform entertaining the men that looked to be getting drunker by the minute. Kendrew his lips into a tight line knowing what the men intended to do those women.
They won't get near them if the Eagle has any say in it. Ken secretly promised the girls he'd be back to help them.
Walking close to the buildings so he could stay obscure from the passing soldiers around him, he looked up to see familiar face on the verandah of one of the buildings in the distance. Beyond it he saw a helicopter land- its lights highlighted the fine drizzle.
He'd seen one picture of the General taken from a distance-it was enough for him identify his target. Ken wanted more than to just eliminate the man. That would be too easy and it wouldn't give him the source of the weapon deals, what this General aimed to do with it all. The last thing he needed to deal with was another Berg Katse warlord taking over Galactor technology.
Ken check around him to make sure he wasn't being watched, and then he moved in closer to the building, watching the General the whole time walk back inside followed by some men that didn't look like they belonged there, Ken assumed they had come in from the helicopter.
The building had been made on stilts making it easier for him to slip in underneath and look up through the cracks in the floor boards at the four men in the room.
"General Kino… you're late..." One of the men with a Scandinavian accent said evenly.
"Late?" The General scoffed. "I had a supply train destroyed a week ago... you have no idea what I face here in this jungle."
"You promised me gun's…and a mecha from the old Galactor-"The other Scandinavian man with a quick temper began to threaten the General by indicating to his gun.
"A Mecha! What do you think was left from that regime?" General Kino looked astounded.
"You said there is an old base around here?" The shrewd looking man with darker features that one hadn't spoken yet looked at the General thoughtfully.
"It blew up… unexpectedly…taking the Mecha with it." General Kino huffed. "There could have been unstable explosives in there; I should have left some men there. But since the base was 100 miles south from here, I needed them here to contain some rebels." The three men exchanged glances.
Ken grinned, and his grin left his face when he realized the base he blew up was to the east and there hadn't been a Mecha at the base he found. So, who blew up the other base? Ken wondered. He mentally marked the shrewd looking man- he was the dangerous one out the four of them.
The sounds of panicked voices and shouting made him shrink away from the crack in the floor.
"There's breach, find the intruder!" One man shouted. They must have found the body sooner than he expected.
Ken looked around for an exit, and then he noticed one of the drunken men dragging one of the young frightened Burmese dancers towards a hut.
Ken moved quickly towards them while the camp came to life around him. He threw the birdrang hitting the man in the back of the head knocking him to the ground in one hard blow. He stretched out his hand to catch the returning birdrang. He let the young girl see him, and he indicated that she come closer to him.
He understood her hesitation, she looked at the dead man that had been about to force her to sleep with him and then she ran towards Ken.
"Do you speak English?" He asked her quickly.
"A few words." She said brokenly. "My sister…" She pointed towards the main area where soldiers were now pouring out of.
"Stay with me." He told her. She seemed to understand, and she crouched down following along behind him. He needed to keep an eye on the General and his business associates- he needed to learn more of the operation so he could report it to Dr.Nambu. But Ken hated to see innocents suffer and he could see these girls are innocent.
Bombs started to go off in another part of the camp, confusing Ken because he didn't intend to start a fight, just get his information and get out. Now he knew he wasn't alone here, maybe they didn't find the body.
The large group of men had pulled then off the stage and had begun to strip them of their clothing, the three remaining girls screamed in horror at the hands groping at their bodies.
Ken moved quickly letting his birdrang cut down more of the men, with fluid moves he took out more with his precise punches and kicks, causing the men to forget the girls so they could fight him.
The girl he freed on the road ran in and took the hand of her sister and indicated the other girls follow her.
Ken knew it was time to leave, he followed the girls out of the common room and to the perimeter of the camp, and he gave her a gun and some ammunition.
"We..be…ok…now…" The girl he helped stuttered. "You kill them…they..do…bad…things to us." Tears came to her sad eyes and Ken nodded telling her he would do his best to avenge her. Then he saw the helicopter start up from the corner of his eye.
Racing through back through the camp that had chaos taking over with explosions happening everywhere he had to stop that helicopter from taking off.
He rounded the corner of hut to see it was to late as it lifted higher off the ground, but he wasn't about to be beaten. He needed to know who those men worked for. He saw the General in with them.
Looking over he saw another smaller chopper. Racing at full speed he jumped in and started up the engines. Then he began the process of speeding up the blades for lift off.
The chopper began to lift higher when he felt it suddenly begin to rapidly descend from the sky. Smoke pouring out of the engine in black choking plumes.
Ken struggled to get back control of the spinning chopping, the he saw the ground coming straight for him, the sound of metal bending and blades ploughing into the ground, unbearable pain shot through him and then blackness followed.
He became semi conscious long enough to feel his body being pulled from the wreckage, the smell of fuel and smoke making think he was being suffocated.
The night became darker, the pain shot through him again this time more intense causing to cry out, he wanted to reach for her.
A deep harsh male voice came out of the darkness. "You had better be treating her right. You son of a bitch, what the hell did you think you were doing?"
Ken didn't respond, he had already begun to slip back into the dark place he been in only moments before.
Days began to slip into more than a week, and she had been sick at different times during the day, but she found ways of hiding it from Jinpei. A few times she tried to work out how far along the pregnancy had progressed. Looking at her calendar she narrowed it down to about eight or nine weeks, maybe.
She had decided not to go to a doctor, at least not yet. If any of them required medical treatment they were suppose to go to the ISO building. They later learned Joe had been to see an unregister doctor about his brain condition. Jun had been tempted to do the same. She knew she should have the pregnancy terminated, and it would be better to do it before Ken came home.
That way she could pretend everything was normal. Life would simply go on like it never happened.
But she'd know... That thought stopped her every time she picked up the phone book into look for a clinic that did abortions.
Then she'd run to her room and cry that she even though about doing it…she had become an emotional wreck. In the past few weeks she'd snapped at Jinpei over the smallest things, and it had been getting worse.
Women miscarried all the time, often she hoped that would happen so she wouldn't have to make a choice, but now she wasn't so sure, her breasts had begun to hurt from the hormones running through her body.
Lucky he just figured her strange behaviour was because she missed Ken, and he teased her endlessly about moping around the Snack J for him.
Sitting at an empty table in the very quiet bar and grill Jun debated about how she could tell Ken about the baby when he eventually came home.
"Sis, Ryu wants me to go fishing with him again in a few days…this time he wants to know if I can go for more than one day." Jinpei looked at her with expectant eyes.
"Huh." She said coming back out of her thoughts.
"Sis will you stop being a love struck girl for one day." He moaned rolling his eyes and jumping over the counter to head towards the kitchen.
"You can go fishing Jinpei…" She told him standing up and walking over to the bar to get a drink of soda.
None of the scenarios that she constantly ran through her mind seemed to work, the all ended with Ken saying things that broke her heart. Wether he'd really say those things or not.
Thinking of him she had been worried that he hadn't called her in over a week, but then if he had been doing work for DR. Nambu and the ISO then he could just out of range for a phone.
Joe hid his illness from them all for a long time, eventually Ken worked it out, that he was hiding something…
Bringing the cool glass to her lips Jun thought about those last weeks of Joe's life. In the past two weeks she had a glimmer of understanding spark in her mind when he felt the need to keep it a secret. She remembered being so angry with him that he didn't trust her enough to tell what was wrong that day she tried to talk to him on the hill outside of Hakase's mansion.
She looked at her brother singing in the kitchen while he clean up from the morning rush. She had to keep this a secret from him, at least until she spoke to Ken.
Ken…would she become a burden to him, she thought. He'd want to keep it, something inside her told her would, but in the year come would be resent her for falling pregnant in a time when they were not totally certain of Galactors demise. Forcing in a position where he felt he had to marry her for the sake of their unborn child?
She put glass down and placed her hands firmly in the counter, she could just make the decision before he come home. Her knuckles went white from the tight she had on the counter.
Jinpei had asked for a few days away- that made it the perfect opportunity for her to do something about this pregnancy before it past the point of no return.
She thought about the abortion clinic she found in the phone book. Mustering up the courage to what needed to be done Jun walked slowly up the stairs to loft so Jinpei wouldn't overhear the conversation.
She pulled out the number and dialled it before she could think about backing out again.
"Good afternoon Dr. Bligh's surgery." The professional sounding secretary said through the phone line.
"Good afternoon, my names Jun and I'd like to make an appointment with Dr.Bligh." She said without any really emotion in her voice.
"I have an opening for tomorrow, he requires two interviews before any procedures are done." She told Jun in a firm but friendly voice. "Payment for any procedures is to be done in instalments."
"That's fine…" Jun said, writing down the time she needed to be there for the first appointment. "I'll be there."
With slightly trembling fingers Jun hung up the phone. It's done now, she thought hanging her head she allowed herself to become numb to the baby growing inside of her. In few days it would be just a bad dream she made go away.