It's A Form of Love
August 27, 2015
Basset Space Center, Osea
Convention Hall Basement
---
Nagase's astonished look at the reappearance of the ghost of her past life lasted only mere seconds. She tensed herself and gave Blaze a intimidating look even though he's the one with the gun. This made Blaze recall the mission where Chopper, Archer and he rescued her and a couple gunship pilots after they were downed over Yuktobania. Now that he's on the receiving end of it, he finally understood how that Yuktobanian soldier felt.
"Earpiece," he said threateningly, reacquiring his aim, "take it out."
"If you are-"
A bullet which barely missed the side of her temple interrupted her.
"Earpiece" he said again.
She complied, throwing the object at his feet. The former Razgriz leader crushed it under his right foot, before looking at her again and dropping his aim.
"Don't be on Edge" he said suddenly and amicably, attempting to make a pun out of her old callsign.
Caught off-guard, Nagase's eyes grew wide again at his poor attempt at a humor which blatantly contradicted his earlier serious demeanor. Other people may not recognize his jokes since they were always so dry, so unfunny and so unexpected, but she somehow understood it immediately, like she always did five years ago. She may even have laughed if not for the situation they are in.
Finding no response from the woman in front of him, Blaze stepped back towards the open Humvee door - which formed a barrier between them - and resuming dressing.
"…How did you survive?" she asked, forgetting that in front of her was a potential criminal who, as a police officer, she must subjugate first before asking questions.
He didn't reply.
"Why did you disappear like you did?"
He still remained silent.
"Answer me, Wilhelm Schulz!" she shouted angrily, brandishing a thin ceramic knife –undetectable by external touch and sensors - from her right hip and tossing it at him.
The blade flew through the open window and struck him on right shoulder, making him flinch. Despite the knife being lightweight, its sharpness provided enough penetration to make him drop his gun. Distracted while trying to pull the knife out, Blaze failed to notice her closing the distance between them. A bang echoed in the empty basement as he felt the cold, metal frame of the Humvee door slamming into his face and breaking one of the two lenses to his glasses. Nagase grabbed the USP45 next to the left front wheel, distanced herself and aimed at him.
"That uniform won't help you get out of this" she said, putting her emotions aside. "You are already #1 on the OADF wanted list for disappearing with the Falken. Now you are a terrorist for that explosion on the mass driver. I'm putting you under arrest for repeated counts of murder, obstruction of justice, terrorism, and conspiracy against multiple nations. Put your hands on the hood of the vehicle now!"
"You have no such power. ICPO's limited to-"
She fired one shot at the Humvee door, stopping him.
"I only need to keep you long enough for security to get you. Now, hands on the hood!"
He rounded the vehicle door and complied.
"Terrorism and conspiracy, huh?" he sighed, "You understand nothing"
"You are right, I don't. You may have been killing Gray Men members to atone for what you have done years ago, but today you became a something worse than a murderer: you blew up that space shuttle" she said, throwing him a used towel from the laundry bin next to her. "Tie your wrists up"
"That wasn't my doing"
"Lies! I saw you. You expected the blast to happen and you killed Amansal while everyone was still stunned by it "
"…the attack should start anytime now" he said, avoiding Nagase's accusation.
"What attack? What are you-"
She was interrupted by vibrations caused by explosions on the surface.
"What's happening?" she asked.
"Space Defense Front: the opponents to this so called Peacemaker project. You would be surprised how strong they are. Their attack will fail but they mounted it anyway. Just goes to show that how desperate people can be"
"And you plan to escape in the chaos of the battle? How did you know they were going to attack?"
"Kei-"
"You have no right to call me that!" she shouted, silencing him. "Now answer the question!"
"… FOS 10078 RLN codename: Lunaire. You know what that is?" he asked.
She remembered the name, but remained silent.
"An advanced OS to handle Falken's complex systems. The Gray Men's greatest creation. Ironically, they didn't realize that she's much, much more"
"She?"
"Lunaire learned such concepts and chose the gender"
"What are you implying?"
"She's highly-intelligent, sentient AI that can reside in any OS-based machine" he said, drawing an incredulous chuckle from Nagase.
"No such thing could exist"
"Whatever you wish to believe is your choice, but I would have been dead if it weren't for her. Since then, we have been working together to eliminate Gray Men members you police cannot touch. That's why I also know about the SDF's plan to attack today"
"Five years you have been doing this," Nagase said, "to what end?"
"So you don't have to do the things I have done. Forget this revenge business. Live a happy life"
"What do you know about happiness? My life's gone when you and that evil organization you served took everything I loved." she said bitterly. "You don't know how badly I want to pull this trigger"
"…But I know" he softly said at the same time as the Humvee's lights flashed on, blinding her.
At the same instant, Blaze threw the towel he faked tying his wrists with at her. Nagase - thinking the silhouette generated by the towel was Blaze's - shot at it. She realized her mistake too late when the gun was wrenched out of her grasp. Despite her military training – which enabled her to thwart his first attempt at grabbing her – her position facing the Humvee's headlights was disadvantageous. The next second, she felt herself flying through the air and landed hard on her back. Almost immediately, arms coiled around her neck in a sleeper hold. She struggled against it - her fingernails digging into his left forearm - but to no avail.
Feeling herself slipping out of consciousness due to the blockage to her carotid artery, she heard him whisper, "By not involving you, I had hoped to protect you. I'm sorry for everything"
"Again, you are going to disappear on me, like you did last time. There's so much I want to ask" her lips silently mouthed the words before darkness consumed her.
After feeling her go limp, the former Razgriz leader lifted his former wingman up and leaned her against a wall. Several seconds passed as he looked intently at her, his right hand touching her face and his thumb brushing her skin. Several locks of hair, which had become undone during their struggle, he tucked back behind her ears and tidied; the blood on her nails, he cleaned; the hands of those nails, he tightly held and kissed.
August 28, 2015
Edward G. Hodgers Building
Interrogation Room 504C
Oured, Osea
---
"Being on the other end of the table is different, isn't it?" asked a blond-haired, middle-aged man as he entered the room, locked it and walked towards a seat across Tanaka.
"You will be personally conducting this interrogation, sir?" he said.
"There aren't any other available agents," Telford Sturgeon said, taking his seat. "We have been so busy since this morning, phones ringing constantly, and other intelligence agencies asking for details. I don't even have time to check my stocks- must have dropped like a rock"
"Sir?"
"Relax, Tanaka. I'm get like this when I am tired"
"Then I should be helping you, not the one being questioned" he said, agitated.
"This isn't an interrogation. You aren't even handcuffed and you still carry your gun" Sturgeon said, turning on an audio/video recorder in the form of a laptop. "It's been a long day. You helped enough. Most agents on your shift I have already sent home. Now we just need to get your perspective on today's events"
A table – upon which lay the laptop recorder and a briefcase containing various documents and utensils - separated the two men. To Tanaka's left, a window with a view to the Oured Bay showed various city lights lighting up the midnight sky. A one-way mirror in front on him on one face of the lightly-painted, 36 square meters room reflected Tanaka's face. This was the first time he sat on the chair facing that mirror. In addition, his boss was the one conducting the interview. Both factors rather unnerved him because he was usually the one doing the questioning for the past 3 years since his joining the Bureau.
"You know the drill. Name, DOB, age, occupation in that order" Sturgeon said.
"Toshihiko Tanaka. 12th December 1987. 27 years old. FBI special agent, Counterintelligence division, Operations branch" he listed.
"What was your assignment on August 27, 2015 at the Bassett Space Center?"
"I was under the command of Telford Sturgeon, head of the Operations branch. We were to provide additional security on site alongside other agencies"
"Other agents saw you with a woman coming into the conventional hall. Who was she?"
"Kei Nagase, an ICPO detective. She was there as President Harling's special guest. I volunteered as her escort just from the entrance gate to the conventional hall. Agent Sturgeon gave me the go-ahead"
"What is your relationship with her?"
"Strictly professional. We worked together in few cases" he said, hiding his hesitation on the words 'strictly professional'. "Well, I had hoped it could be more, but she has always been indifferent to my approaches"
"What was the nature of those cases?"
"We were investigating Gray Men individuals suspected of espionage and black market trading of Osean military technologies. You may refer to reports 1023A, 1133B and 1136A through 1144C for further details"
"Continue your observations on today's events" Sturgeon said, moving the interview along.
"After escorting Ms. Nagase, I moved back to my position on the hall floor, where I then bumped into a waiter, spilling the champagne he carried. An explosion occurred. A scream thereafter led me to Geofrey Amansal, an executive at Neucom Inc. He was dead. Agent Sturgeon then ordered me to secure the area around the body, where I stayed until the evacuation of VIPs was complete"
"What of the waiter you mentioned?"
"He was gone. I assumed he had gone into the crowds"
"Could you briefly describe him?"
"Black hair, grey eyes, about 180cm height, normal-thin build. His name on the tag was 'Adam Smith'"
"And you are sure about the name?"
"Yes"
"Was there anything out of the ordinary you saw about that man?" Sturgeon asked, looking at Tanaka for the first time since he entered.
"…No, sir"
"Have you contacted Ms. Nagase anytime after that?"
"None. My calls earlier today didn't get through"
"Is there anything you wish to add?" Sturgeon asked.
Tanaka hesitated. He should have said something about knowing the true identity of Amansal. But speaking out, especially when he's on record, would mean he aided Nagase in withholding critical information. He could be fired, or even worse, criminally charged. Then, there was that note which said, "Keep an eye on her". The only one who could have slipped him the note is the waiter.
"Is Nagase what he meant by 'her'? If so, how are they related? Is that why she's so insistent of catching him? So that would mean the waiter was the one who killed Amansal. What if telling Sturgeon about the note, about everything, will link me to this mess and land me in a pile of shit?" he thought, before finally lying. "Nothing more"
"Alright," Scott said, closing the recorder laptop that separated the two men and booting up another one.
"Did you find anything out about Ms. Nagase, sir?"
"The evacuation was chaotic. There was no time to check everyone out. My contact at the Interpol reports she's on flight back to their HQ in Usea, but since commercial air traffic are grounded today-or rather, yesterday since it's already 2:00am, she probably won't arrive until later today"
"I see. Thank you" he said. "Are we done?"
"One more thing: There was no 'Adam Smith' working today"
"What? That's impossible. The name is still clear in my mind"
"We are just talking here, Tanaka. You don't have to hide anything"
The younger man tensed as he said, "I don't appreciate your tone, sir"
"For your age, you are the most competent agent I have. I haven't nurtured you all these years, not to have an inkling of what you are thinking. I understand your reluctance to say anything on record, but now we are not." Sturgeon said, leaning back onto the chair's back rest, folding his arms and looking at his subordinate who remained silent. "…Don't you think it's odd?"
"What is?"
Sturgeon tapped a few keys on the laptop he just booted up, turned its monitor towards Tanaka and played a video file. It was a CCTV recording of Tanaka bumping into the waiter. Both then knelt down before the video ends.
"Power went out in the hall then. At first look, the scene looks ordinary. But then I watched other footages. In all the cameras which recorded him, none showed his face clearly, not even with further image processing. Why is that?"
"He knew all the location of the cameras and never looked at them" Tanaka said.
"Now why would a waiter do that?" Sturgeon asked.
"You suspect he had something to do with the death of Amansal?"
"Why else would he be so close to the victim at the time of death then?" Sturgeon asked, looking directly at Tanaka once again. "Now here is where your friend Ms. ICPO comes in to all this. Gray Men investigations are her specialities, and I just found out the murder victim had connections to that organization. Her presence may mean she has prior knowledge of about Amansal's identity, yet she didn't include it in her intelligence report. Why? The Gray Men has everything to gain if the Peacemaker project fails. So why didn't she tell us?"
Tanaka never felt this much pressure in his life. His mentor had always been good at reading people, at coercing answers from them without actually threatening them. However, the years of working under Sturgeon taught the younger man how not to give himself away.
"Detective Nagase is an honest person who takes great pride in her work. She makes the morally correct choices even if it makes things difficult for her. If she did not include Amansal's true identity in her report, then she didn't know anything about it" he said calmly.
Two faces, both emotionless, looked at each other for several long seconds.
"…Very well" Sturgeon said. "We are done here. Go home, get some rest. I need you fresh and alert in the morning"
"Yes, sir"
Both men left the room and went on their separate ways. At the elevator, Tanaka looked at his mobile phone's clock which read 02:20 am.
"Nagase, are you alright?" he thought, unlocking the phone's touch-screen.
His question was answered in the form of a text message. However, just as he was about to open it, the phone's batteries went dead. The FBI agent let out a sigh as he stowed the phone back into his pocket.
"Keep an eye on him" said Sturgeon to a person by his side as he watched the doors to Tanaka's elevator closed.
August 28, 2015
Somewhere above Osean mainland
---
"Everything is going well I assume" said a male voice over the audio conference.
"All according to plan. We'll keep them distracted by the Space Defense Front and the Gray Men" replied a female voice.
"They are both nothing but dummy organizations filled with simpletons and kept alive by us. At least, like you said, they're useful as bait" said another male voice.
"Even so, something bothers me. Why did the bomb go off outside the shuttle? It sustained minor damage where it should have been destroyed. Did Trent fail?" a third male voice asked.
"It doesn't matter. What's important is the result. It was enough make the nations suspect one another. We cannot have the world united, not like this" the only female voice said.
"What if Trent was discovered?"
"Gentlemen," said the female voice again, "focus on the task at hand. We are past the point-of-no-return. Each of you knows the price of failure. The attack tomorrow must occur as scheduled. I will take care of the rest, including Trent"
"And how are you going to do that?"
"There's one man and his machine that could be a great ally to have on our side"
"Are you sure? He betrayed his organization before. Who's to say he will work for us?" the first male voice asked.
"You leave that to me. Being a man, he can't refuse what I'm offering him"