Chapter XVI: With Highest Honors.
1320hrs, 31 August 2013, "Top Secret" Medical Facility, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
"You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world." Tom Brokaw
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind." John Stuart Mill, On Liberty.
"Welcome back, girls." Kawasaki opened the doors to the SUVs that had brought them back to the medical facility. "I think you're ready for your first real world operation."
"Gee, thanks," Mina sarcastically said to him. She was still a little shaken up, and more than a little pissed off at having to kill someone who just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Kim didn't count though; he deserved it, as far as Mina was concerned.
"Follow me, please." Kawasaki seemed to be a far better mood. They started walking up from the parking garage in the basement of the Medical Facility up to the conference room that they oh-so enjoyed. Other than the VR chambers, everyone complained that this room was where they actually lived rather than their living quarters.
"What's up with him?" Amy asked.
"Maybe he shacked up with Kuroi," Raye said. "They've been a little lovey-dovey since we got here."
"Uh-huh," Lita chimed. "And maybe you've been looking at all those videos too."
"And that Kuroi and Kawasaki totally…wait, what did you say?"
"You heard me right," Lita said, with a smile.
"Oh you bastard," Raye said. "How did you…?"
"It was Amy," Lita pointed out.
"Hey, you weren't supposed to tell her!" Amy protested.
"Oh you better sleep with one eye open, Amy," Raye threatened.
"It was Lita's idea!"
"BOTH of you better sleep with one eye open," Raye said. "I am so getting you back. And don't think your hacking skills can help you here, Amy."
They chatted with each other all the way up to the conference room.
"That's enough, girls," Kobayashi interrupted. The SAILOR team rolled their eyes and walked into the conference room. The three "Ks" were there, but in addition, Colonel Iwasaki and two other people were there as well, ones that they didn't recognize.
"Hello," Iwasaki said.
"How did you get up here so fast?" Amy asked. "You left right after we did."
"Well, I took a helicopter…" he said, somewhat embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm gonna regret that one," noting the glaring stares from the SAILOR team.
"Anyway," Kobayashi said. "From here on out, this will be your permanent station. We'll have you out on missions and stuff, but it's mandatory that the team gets at least one week rest out of every month. You'll be working hard, but you'll get good rest too."
"No offence doctor person," Serena said, "But who are you two?"
The two unknown people, one man and one woman, glanced at each other. One was wearing an Air Self Defense Force dress uniform while the other one was wearing a Maritime Self Defense uniform. The ASDF woman finally stepped up to the plate and introduced herself.
"Hello," she said. "I'm Lieutenant Yumiko Kitsune, JASDF. I…uh…" She looked at Iwasaki.
"Lieutenant Kitsune is your communications officer," Iwasaki said. "She has been assigned to this force after much consideration."
Kitsune smiled nervously. "That is correct. I will assist you in the field where possible. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The JMSDF person was next. "I'm Lieutenant, junior grade, Yuichiro Tanaka. I'm also a communications officer." He seemed a lot more laid back than Lt. Kitsune.
"These people will provide information and developments in the mission you will be working on," Kobayashi stated. "In addition there is a transport team, an acquisitions team, a finance team…"
"Wait," Amy butted in. "We have a finance team?"
"Yes. How do you think all of this gets paid for?"
"I thought the government pays for it," Serena said.
"Well…" he said sheepishly. "We have to keep a low profile. So we…borrow it from other places. Like Swiss Bank accounts."
"And who would these Swiss Bank accounts belong to?" inquired Lita.
"They used to belong to…uh…the Nazis."
"Oh come on," Raye said. "That's just wrong."
"Hey, they aren't using it anymore," Kobayashi objected. "It's not like any one is going to come back to get that stuff. So we just…borrowed it. Permanently."
"Any place else that we get our money from?" Amy interrogated. "Let me guess. Seized drug funds, seized funds from convicted criminals, and several hedge funds leading to a Cayman Islands bank account. And the annual bake sale funds from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries office in Hokkaido."
"Ouch," Iwasaki said. "She's good."
"I only tapped into your email traffic and determined where the money was coming from last week," Amy said with a smile.
Kobayashi made a mental note to upgrade security and to put the girls' computers on a separate network. They kind of didn't think this one through.
"So, we are here today to first, celebrate your completion of training and second…give you your first mission briefing. Without further ado, Nurse Kuroi?"
Kuroi brought them each a nice certificate, framed in an oak casing and with a stand. The certificate read, "The Japanese Government hereby confers the rank of Captain on Serena Tsukino/Amy Mizuno/Raye Hino/Lita Kino/Mina Aino in the Systematic Awareness Intelligence Operational Recon Service Force (SAILOR-SF), along with the rights and privileges associated with the rank."
"Please raise your right hand, please," Kobayashi said. "And face toward the Japanese flag. Colonel Iwasaki?"
Iwasaki had placed a very large Hinomaru on the wall where the projector screen would have been. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and began to read from it.
"I hear by confer upon you the rank of Captain in the…" He took a deep breath. "Systematic Awareness Intelligence Operational Recon Service Force, by the order of the Joint Chiefs of the Japanese Self Defense Force and the Prime Minister of Japan." He looked at Kobayashi. I thought that this was supposed to be all hush-hush, his look said.
Hey, don't look at me, was the response from Kobayashi. I just work here.
"Do you swear to defend Japan with all your mind, body, and soul?"
"I do," was the reply from the SAILORs.
"Do you swear yourself to secrecy, to preserve the confidentiality of this program?"
"I do."
"Do you swear loyalty to each other, to never leave a man…er, woman, behind in the field of battle?"
"I do."
"Do you swear, at all costs, to eliminate any threats to the best of your ability that might threaten Japan and the world at large?"
"I do."
"Do you swear to follow all of these obligations to the best of your ability, and to take these obligations without reservation or doubt, so help you god?"
"I do."
"Congratulations. Thank you all."
Iwasaki, Kobayashi, Kawasai, Kuroi, Kitsune and Lt. Tanaka all bowed to them.
The SAILORs bowed back, gracefully.
"Thank you, Colonel," Serena said. "Uh…Doctor Person. Thanks."
"It has been an honor," Kobayashi said. "I just hope that it has been enough."
"It has, Doctor," Amy replied. "Thanks for letting me tag along in some of your sessions."
"Not a problem. I know that you want to become a doctor someday, and this will help toward that, most certainly."
"Alright everyone," Kawasaki announced to the room. "We just need to get through this briefing then we can have cake and stuff."
That brought a groan from everyone.
"It'll be short, I promise."
"You said that about our last VR mission," Mina bitched. "And that was for like, eighteen hours!"
"No really," he replied. "But since this does concern your next mission, you will probably wish that the briefing was a bit longer."
"Fine, fine," Raye sighed. "Let's get this over with."
They all sat down in the chairs.
"Um, Colonel Iwasaki?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you take down the Hinomaru…?"
"Oh, sorry." He walked over the flag and proceeded to neatly take it down and fold it. Which took five minutes.
"Alrighty then…" Kawasaki said, glaring at Iwasaki. "This is a Mr. Park Minjun. He's a high ranking official in the Hyeonjun Heavy Industries company, and he's been kind of a pain of late. In the last year, he's defrauded billions of yen from Japanese companies and businessmen. He's also escaped the law in both South Korea and in Japan. So, your job is to take him out."
There was silence.
"That's it?" Serena asked.
"Told you this briefing was going to be short," Kawasaki said. "We don't know where he is at the moment, but we should know in the next couple of days or so. It's up to you and your team to then find out the best way to carry out the mission. Any questions? No? Let's have cake then, shall we?"
Kuroi wheeled a big sheet cake that said, "Congratulations!"
"Reminds me of Evangelion," Raye noted.
"Don't remind me." Amy rolled her eyes at that.
"Congratulations!"
"Shut up, Raye."
Serena helped herself to some cake that Kuroi had just cut. "Mmm...this is so good." She walked off to enjoy it, snagging another piece as she did so.
"Well, thanks, Kuroi-sensei," Mina said, taking some cake.
"Like I said, you don't have to call me that," Kuroi replied curtly.
"It was a joke." Mina wondered what was eating at Kuroi lately. She seemed to be in a fouler mood than ever before.
"Are you going to eat that?" Serena asked her. "Or do I have to finish it?"
"Oh come on." Mina snatched her cake away from SAILOR Moon. "You grabbed two pieces and besides, there's plenty left."
"Hey now," Kuroi said. "Serena, just take some more." She cut off a large piece of cake and put it on Serena's plate.
"Thanks Nurse Kuroi!" Serena ran off and pestered Lt. Kitsune.
"So, how are you doing?" Serena munched on some cake.
"I…uh…I'm doing just fine," she replied.
"What do they call you?"
"Excuse me?" Kitsune asked, puzzled.
"What do they call you? We have different callsigns? I'm SAILOR Moon, for example."
"Oh…oh…" She was kind of embarrassed by that.
"What did you do…?" Serena pried, with a smile on her face.
"Well, they call me 'Luna', because, ah…"
"Go on," Serena cajoled.
"You know that air force base near Yokoda?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, it was a dare. Somebody challenged me to well…moon some of the incoming airplanes that came into the air base. And I just happened to choose a night that had a full moon. "Luna replied embarrassed. "It was all quite silly. But that's the reason why I got my callsign."
"Hey, that sounds like something I would have done," Serena said. "I would have lost weight just thinking about it!"
They both laughed, with Luna wondering why the hell she was bringing up weight loss all of a sudden. The party went on for a while after that, with Raye breaking out some beer and sake, and soon enough, everyone was spectacularly wasted, even Amy was more than drunk. They stumbled back to their rooms somehow, and collapsed into bed, asleep and happy that for the most part, the real work could begin.
The next day (and slightly hungover), despite all the partying, they began to plan the mission with Col. Iwasaki, Lt. Kitsune and Lt. (jg) Tanaka.
"From numerous sources," Lt. Kitsune stated, "We have located the location of Mr. Park's weekly transit route that he takes from Yangsan about an hour or so drive from Busan, where he does his work. He prefers to travel at night, for security precautions. He stays for about four days in Yangsan, then goes back to Busan on a Thursday."
The SAILOR team was frantically writing down notes, with the exception of Amy, who was again, tapping stuff out on that tablet computer of hers'. "Interesting work schedule," she commented.
"Kim usually comes through here," Iwasaki said, pointing at a map on the projector screen. "He has a large escort, but the force is unknown at the time. You are to ambush this force at this location."
"Why are we starting a firefight in the middle of a large city?" Mina asked.
"Need a plausible story. Blame it on the North Koreans, since they would do something that brazen," Iwasaki said.
"I see," Mina replied. "But won't that attract a lot of police attention?"
"That is correct. Again, we need to do it this way or else some people will start asking questions. Shifting blame to another party is part of the job, and with both nations paranoid of each other, it won't be hard to pin it one or the other."
"Why can't we hit him at his home or work?" Lita asked.
"Too heavily guarded and such. This is the only time he has a small enough force for you to handle." Iwasaki looked around, somewhat annoyed by the interruption, but these were sensible questions. He continued on with the briefing.
"Anyway, I thought it prudent to rent a room under a shell company name in this skyscraper here to provide overwatch on the road, here. I had the finance guys get that office under a known NK shell company name. Didn't take that long either." He pointed at a high rise right next to the road.
"That's a pretty big road," Mina noted.
"Eight lanes across, with a median in the center," Amy said. "Looks like we'll have to block off the road or force the convoy of vehicles onto a smaller road."
"We should engage the force on the bigger road," Raye piped up. "Here's my plan. Have the team ambush the convoy on the ground with SUVs or something like that, and shoot the cars up then drive away. Forget waiting around in that stupid skyscraper thing, let's just get him there."
"I say we force him off on this service road here." Amy pointed out to some smaller, two lane roads near the skyscrapers. "Somebody in that building provides overwatch, calls out to the cars to force him off of the road into these roads here, and then kill him there."
"That takes too much effort," Raye complained. "Why can't we just kill him on the main road? Good fields of fire, plenty of space…"
"And plenty of chances for him to get away," Amy replied. "We can't let him have the chance to drive off."
They argued about it for about an hour, then finally Mina and Serena came up with a compromise solution.
"Okay, so here's how the operation will work out," Serena announced. She put a map up of the area around where Kim's convoy would pass.
"Amy and I," Mina said, "Will be in the room that was rented by Col. Iwasaki, taking overwatch of the road and giving fire support if need be. We will call out the SUVs and their strength."
"Lita, Raye and I," Serena added, "Will be on the ground level in cars or something to that extent. We will block off the opposite side of the road that the convoy will be coming from. When the convoy gets close, our team will close in and engage the convoy. We will then make sure that everyone is dead."
"Sounds simple enough," Iwasaki said. "Lts, do you have any objections?"
Of course, they didn't.
"Uh, one question." It was Amy, as usual.
"If we carry out this attack, we can't use Western arms or explosives," she stated. "If we do this, then we have to use Russian, Chinese, or North Korean weapons."
"Blame it on the North Koreans, like I said before." Iwasaki said in response. "I personally enjoy that idea. We'll get you those weapons and everything else for this mission."
This time, Mina raised her hand. "Where are we going to be staying for this trip?"
"We've put you up at some hotel at the moment. We tried to get a safehouse, but after renting that room overlooking the ambush route, we couldn't get one due to everyone snapping up residential property in South Korea at the moment. Space is very limited, and paying a couple million won for a house or apartment that we might not use again doesn't really suit our needs for now. It's not ideal, since we can't control the environment at the hotel, but it'll have to do for now."
"Which hotel?" Mina asked.
"The Westin Chosen."
Amy threw up her hands in disbelief. "Oh, you can't get us in at a safehouse, but you choose a five star hotel instead? How is that conductive to special operations?"
"Hey, they didn't ask any questions," Iwasaki responded. "It's a good place to hide out anyway. Blend in with all the rich people."
The room grew silent at that remark. Sensing the irritation of everyone, Iwasaki decided to end the meeting.
"Any other questions?"
There were none, mostly out of the sheer idiocy that had befallen the planning session.
"Very good then. How about some lunch?"
Since they had finally gotten a plan together, they all went to go get lunch in the cafeteria. Mina had gotten into a nice conversation with Lt. (j.g.) Tanaka over curry and rice.
"So, why do they call you Artemis?"
Lt. (jg) Tanaka sighed. "I used to be really interested in Greek stuff before I sobered up and got an actual degree. This one time, I got so wasted that I declared myself Artemis, even though Artemis is a female god and not a male one. Nonetheless, my squadmates found out, and so, I've been called that ever since."
"And that doesn't embarrass you at all?"
"I mean, the entire incident does, yes, but that callsign? Nah, most people don't even know who Artemis is anyway."
"Besides your coworkers," Mina smirked.
"Yes, besides them," he said, rolling his eyes. Artemis leaned back in his chair. "What about you?"
"Well, I wanted to be a J-pop star, but other things got in the way," she said with a smile. "Like this."
"That's too bad," Artemis commented.
"I know. But it will all work out, in the end."
"Aw, those two look so cute." Lita noted the two of them talking to each other.
"Well, glad to see somebody is making friends," Raye quipped. "Unlike some OTHER people here who should mind their own business."
"Oh hush," Lita said, taking a bite out of a sandwich. "You're just mad because you got found out."
"Fuck you," Raye replied, tossing a piece of salmon at Lita's face.
"Hey!" Lita responded with a piece of bread, and a small scale food fight broke out.
"That's enough, all of you," Kobayashi intervened, finally after two minutes of food throwing. Amy had gotten a faceful of rice, Lita and Raye were covered in each other's lunches, and Serena and Mina had big splotches of curry on their dresses they had worn that day.
"Nice," Serena said facetiously. "Just the way I wanted my day to go."
"Whatever," Raye said, leaving the room to change. "See you guys later!"
"Make sure that you're back for the briefing at 1500!" Iwasaki yelled out, almost slipping on a banana peel on the ground. He had also caught a piece of cherry pie square in the chest, and was sopping it up haplessly with a napkin.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Lita replied. She also left to change, slipping out with a piece of cake to get Raye back.
For a moment, it seemed like this was just a group of normal kids at school, playing with each other and acting, well, like the teenagers that they were.
But that was not the case, nor would it ever be.