Chapter XLV: Operation TAKE HOLD, Part IV
2000hrs, 16 December 2013, Crofton, Maryland, United States
"Comfort, therefore, not condolence, is what I have to offer to the parents of the dead who may be here. Numberless are the chances to which, as they know, the life of man is subject; but fortunate indeed are they who draw for their lot a death so glorious as that which has caused your mourning, and to whom life has been so exactly measured as to terminate in the happiness in which it has been passed." Pericles, The History of the Peloponnesian War.
The lone SUV drove down Highway 50, and took a left off of the empty road into a wildlife preservation area that was much like Orange, VA, but with the intent of preserving the wildlife…and stuff. Nephrite winced as he touched the bullet wound in his arm that had been inflicted by those infernal SAILOR…scouts? Soldiers? Yes, that was an appropriate name for them. SAILOR Senshi, heh.
"We're here," the driver told him.
"That was tough getting out of the city," Kruger said, taking off his helmet and wiping his brow with a handkerchief. "Thought those police would never give up."
"Well, we were the police," Nephrite said bitterly, "Until Beryl asked us to attack. We might have succeeded in killing a great deal of Congressmen, but the President is alive, and the military is still functional despite the loss of all of their major leadership. That's how it's supposed to work; they've planned this better than we have." The assassinations of most of the four star generals went fairly well at least; for a multi-continental operation, having security contracts with most of the military was extremely helpful. You didn't need to breach security if you were the security.
Nephrite rolled down the window of the SUV and took a look around. Trees, bare of their leaves surrounded him, the snow on the ground shimmering the silence of the winter night.
"This is Sjaal One, Sjaal One to all units, come in." Kruger worked on the radio, trying to raise anybody. "Sir, I'm not reaching anyone."
"Give it some time, they're probably held up by the police or the military,"
"We can't wait here forever," Kruger said to him. "They'll find us."
"I know. But we can afford some time. Trust me."
Kruger simply shrugged and went back to the radio.
Nephrite continued to stare out of his window. His mind now drifted to Molly, who was a scant couple of miles away, probably holed up in that cold, damp, dark cottage that they spent the summers in.
"Max…?" he could hear her voice asking. "Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"Trying to take over the world?" Her innocence really got on his nerves sometimes, but that was all part of the charm.
"Just 'cause," would be his response.
"A just cause? What would that be?"
Nephrite sighed. "It's the way that this has to go down. Sometimes, you have to break a couple of eggs to make an omelet."
"Max, you know that's not right, and I know, that you know, that I know, that's not right at all."
"Stop talking in circles. You're not making any sense."
Molly crossed her arms and glared at him. "I think the situation is reversed here, Max. You're the one that's not making any sense. You've just taken the largest corporation on the face of the Earth and tossed its future out of the window. You could have waited. You had all of the money, the technology, the contracts, everything. The United States was completely under your thumb, Japan was under your control, the United Kingdom was opening up, China, South Korea, Taiwan, all of them soon reduced to mere shadows in the face of the rising of our corporation. We could have been great again, Max. But you just couldn't have waited, now could you? Nice job there." Molly slow clapped, her mouth forcing a grimaced smile. "I never took you for a fool, Max. But you've fucked up. Big time."
"Sir!" Kruger's voice snapped him out of his debate.
"What is it?"
"Over there." Kruger pointed down the road to a lone pair of headlights coming up the road…Bottner, that was a pretty odd name for a road. Oh well, at least someone had made it this way. The SUV continued to drive up, slowly, as if there was something wrong with it.
"Did you hear the President speak?" the driver was chatting idly. "I had it tuned into the radio, but you seemed busy."
"Yeah, she sounded like she was scared shitless," Kruger chuckled. "We showed them, that's for sure."
"We lost a lot of good guys out there," the driver continued on.
"That's for sure," Kruger said. "But they knew what they were getting themselves into."
Finally, the SUV pulled up beside them, and the driver rolled down the window.
"Hey you fuckers, what took so long?!" he yelled out.
He was answered by a M4 shot to the face, his brains splattering all over Kruger.
"Fuck!" Kruger drew his M9 pistol and got off a couple of rounds before he was quickly riddled with bullets.
Nephrite rolled down his window and fired his Calico, but felt a sharp pain as a bullet hit near his chest area. Another snapped through his shoulder. He fell back into the car seat, gasping for breath.
"Nice shooting," Amy said to Mina, who was holding the still smoking M4 in her hands.
"I try," Mina grimaced, ejecting the spent magazine and shoving a new one. She had killed way too many people today.
"Let's get this guy." Amy stopped the SUV and got out, with Mina doing the same, making sure to cover the other vehicle as Amy approached, her Glock 26 in hand. She opened up the driver's side; dead…and dead. She moved to the right passengers' door. Nephrite lay there, bleeding out, breathing extremely hard. He coughed extremely hard, some blood sputtering out as he did so. He winced in pain.
"Nice to see you again," Amy said.
Nephrite coughed some more, bleeding out from his wounds. "Jesus, you two are something else." He was speaking in Japanese, and for once, Amy and Mina could finally speak their own language here. It was tough enough trying to speak English.
"Well, we were well trained," Mina coldly said. "Wonder who set that part up."
"Don't rub it in," Nephrite weakly smiled. "I was just contemplating that fact right now."
"What a coincidence," Amy said. She looked at him; he was in pretty bad shape, and getting him fixed up was probably beyond her scope of care. Without a trip to a hospital, he would certainly die and Amy was in no mood to take him there. At least that first aid kit was certainly getting a workout today. Maybe they had another one in this car, and make his final hours here comfortable.
"It's in the front seat, on the passenger's side," Nephrite said, reading her mind. Amy just gave him a look, and went to go get the kit, while Mina kept her eyes on him.
"You're not too bad looking," Nephrite whispered, conserving his energy. "You kind of look like that Serena person."
"Hmph."
"But I still love my girlfriend," he babbled on. "She's so nice. Sweetest girl you'll ever meet. Makes a damn good scrapple and apple pie."
"What's scrapple?" Mina asked, her interest finally peaked.
"It's…"
"Excuse me, Mina." Amy was back with the First Aid kit, and she was ready to work.
"Go on, Amy will fix you up," Mina winked at Nephrite.
"Uh-huh," Amy mumbled, not happy that Mina was trying to make friends with the enemy. But that's the way you had to play it sometimes, like it or not.
"Scrapple…scrapple…" Nephrite muttered. "It's…it's kind of like sausage. Ish. It's got all the leftovers…" He started to fade in and out.
"Stay with me," Amy said, getting out the necessary equipment to keep him alive for a little bit longer. "Keep him talking."
"Tell me more about your girlfriend," Mina asked. "What's her name?"
"Molly. Molly Baker. Nice girl. Sweetest girl you'll ever meet. Makes a damn good…"
"You told me that already," Mina interrupted. "What else about her?"
"I met her when she was working for the advertising division…she's now my personal assistant when I'm in the States."
"And when you're not?" Mina was onto something here.
"I do just fine…" Nephrite now had a giddy look on his face, like a little kid telling you his favorite story. Well, this was a variation on that, just more adult. And with more blood. Lots more blood.
"Where are your other friends?" Mina continued on.
"What other friends?"
"You know…the other officers in the company?"
Nephrite paused for a second, as if trying to remember what they looked like. "Oh…them. Heh, almost forgot about them, I was so busy with this operation. I dunno."
"Come on, Nephrite," Mina chided, but trying to the pry the information out of him. "I know that you know where they are."
Amy hooked up an IV to Nephrite, and cleaned out the wounds. She reached for another of those single use tubes of the healing solution.
Nephrite shook his head when he saw her reaching for it. "No…no. None of that stuff."
"Why not?" Amy asked, intrigued.
He hesitated for a second before continuing. "Don't…don't want it go to waste."
"You're pretty important," Mina flattered him. "Surely you would want some of this."
Nephrite scoffed that that. "You two are sure persistent. But no, please."
Amy looked at the small tube, but she put it away. His loss.
"Alright then," Mina said. She decided to try another approach to this question. "When did you start planning this operation?"
"Heh, I guess I can tell you that." Nephrite sat up, wincing from the pain. He started to reach in his left chest pocket.
"Hey!" Amy pulled out her Glock and trained it on him.
"Just a smoke." He slowly pulled out a pack of Lucky Strikes.
"Care for one?"
"No, thank you," Mina replied, smiling. Amy just glared and stood back, letting Mina do the interrogation. She holstered her weapon.
He took out a lighter as well, making Amy flinch once more. Mina figured he was just jerking her chain, seeing how on edge she could get sometimes. Nephrite lit the cigarette and took a pull, letting the cacogenic smoke fill his lungs.
"Yeah…that's the stuff."
"Nephrite," Mina said, a little bit of annoyance slipping through.
"I'm getting there." He took another drag before explaining. "A couple of years ago, Beryl…you do know who Beryl is, right? Good. She started to plan this entire operation. All by herself. It was done within a couple of days for crying out loud. What a woman."
Mina noted that Amy was taking notes on her tablet computer, as if at a lecture about the Taisho period in Japanese History than the plans for a plot to take over the world.
"Anyway, she called the COOs in for a meeting. By this point, Yamada has been addicted to coke for a couple of years, so he's in pretty bad shape. He finally managed to get off that stuff, but recently, yeah. So, Beryl comes in and tells us the plan. I have my doubts, but it could work. One of the COOs doesn't like it and tries to walk out. So do you know what she does…?"
Mina felt like this was going nowhere, but maybe they could get something out of it. "Let me guess, she shot him."
"Close enough. She tossed him out of a window. Then that Jadeite guy came in and the plan began in earnest. The rest…well…the rest of it is History."
"Where did you plan to go after all of this?"
"Well, I wasn't planning on going anywhere, but since you two botched my plans I was going to Soco…"
He stopped, knowing that he had gone too far.
"Socotra?" Amy finished. "We know all about that." That was a bluff, but Nephrite didn't know that.
His eyes widened a little bit, but then relaxed. "Figures. You girls…let me tell you, you're smarter than we thought. I don't even know much about it myself though…never been there."
"Uh-huh," Mina replied. She coughed a little bit from Nephrite's cigarette, which was almost at the filter. He took one last drag before discarding it, and then reached for another one of them.
"So, is that where all the COOs are located?"
Nephrite figured he was caught. He was about to die, his girlfriend in the dark about his plans, the reputation of the company ruined, the most powerful nation on Earth, plus everyone else completely and utterly pissed off at their actions today. Yeah. He had nothing to lose. Nice job, Beryl, he thought. I'm going to spill the fucking beans, and there's nothing you can do about it. Hehe.
"Nah. Beryl's there, along with Kunzite, but all of the other COOs are in their respective HQs of Nakanishi operations for their region."
"Why aren't you?" Amy asked, quietly. She was slowly warming up to this man, as evil as might be. Was he that evil though? What separated him and her? Those were questions that she couldn't really answer.
"Come again?"
"Why aren't you camping out in your HQ?"
"I'm more of a hands on person. I liked to tour the places we bought, the operations we had here, everything. We bought a lot of stuff here, let me tell you…" Nephrite's hands trembled a little bit, and he started to sway back and forth, his eyes going a little out of focus. Mina stepped forward and steadied him, placing her hands on both his shoulders and keeping him upright.
"Thanks…I think. We bought up so much shit here…crops, buildings…heh, we were making the United States our own little colony and the bastards didn't even see it coming. We would make sure that Japan would be secure…enough food…resources…fuel…everything to bring us back to what people knew us to be."
Mina and Amy looked at each other on that one. Now that was a scary thought.
"And what was it that people knew Japan to be?" Amy asked, stepping more into the interrogation.
"Please, you two should know better than I could ever understand. Japan is a lost cause. In a hundred years, there will be no more Japan. Our government is deadlocked. They can't get anything done. The fuckers in the Diet think that they can legislate their way out of everything. Now they're concerned about the recession? We've been in a fucking recession for twenty years. And do you know who's the only one to prop everything up? We. Nakanishi. The Center of the West. Showing everyone else that we can do it. Japan is more than anime, more than manga, more than all of those things that everyone thinks we are. We are not a nation of Otaku, or Hikikomori, or NEETs. We are hardworking, loyal, dedicated and resolute. Our culture…our history…our pride…our very existence is threatened by our so-called neighbors and the United States cuddles up with them, leaving us out to dry, like a used condom or something. We have the future in our hands. Or had, anyway." He chuckled to himself, appreciating the circumstances in which he found himself.
"You done?" Amy was getting tired of his monologue.
"Yeah…I guess I am."
"I've just got one more question," Mina asked.
"What is it…Mina?" He said the name with a smile.
"Why did you pick us? Why the SAILOR Program?"
"I'm sure that you've talked to our good friend, Chung…Zhong…however you say his name. It's just like he said. We needed bodies. You just drew the short straw. That's all."
"That's it?"
"Yeah, that's it. I'm sure Zhong told you all of this earlier. As for the SAILOR Team…well, we needed someone to do our dirty work for us…to throw off the trail of our plans before we executed our master plan. You weakened the infrastructure and all…"
"Not if we can help it," Amy retorted. "We will stop you."
"Not my problem anymore," he snorted, smoke coming out of his nose. He took another puff, and then tossed the cigarette away, reaching for a third one. "You do what you guys need to do. I won't stop you. Like I said, I'm done for."
Amy motioned to Mina to step back and enter into a more private conversation. Mina did so, leaving Nephrite to puff smoke rings in the frigid air.
"Looks like we've got everything we can out of him." Amy glanced back at him.
"Yeah, I get that feeling too," Mina replied.
Nephrite couldn't really tell what they were saying, but he didn't care. It was all over. That blonde one was cute, but the blue haired…? Heh, blue hair. Nice. She looked kind of cute too, like his Molly. Damn, I should call her. He thought about reaching for his cell phone, but decided against it as Amy was too trigger happy right now.
"What's our next move?"
"Well, the military will be cleaning up everything. I think that we need to get rid of their leadership before they wisen up and completely cloister themselves in Socotra."
"What is Socotra, anyway?"
"Where." Amy's fact checking was way ahead of Mina's.
"Where is it?"
"It's an island off the coast of Yemen. Nothing much there, other than some small towns and such. Nice place to set up a base of operations though, if you wanted to keep secrets."
"And have the money," Mina pointed out.
"And have the money, indeed." Amy shuffled around, trying to keep a little bit warm. She rubbed her hands to keep them warm.
Mina surprised her (again) when she took them, holding them in her own. They were soft and warm, not the hands of a soldier, but the hands of someone who was at heart, innocent and in way over their head in the situation that they found themselves in. Amy blushed, appreciating the gesture but she didn't feel comfortable when Mina did stuff like that. She pulled away, putting her hands in her pockets. Mina did the same, and to Amy's relief, didn't seem upset that she had pulled away from her.
"What about Nephrite?" Mina asked, taking another look at him.
"What about him?" Amy snorted. "We leave him here. He's going to be either dead or in jail."
Mina shrugged. "Okay then."
"Let's finish this already."
Amy and Mina finished talking and walked over to Nephrite.
"Alright, Nephrite," Amy said. "You can stay here, while we go clean up the huge mess you and your comrades have left us."
He smiled at that. "Of course."
The two of them started to walk away, when he called out to them.
"Can you do one last thing for me?"
Amy was about to say no, but Mina stepped in. "Yeah."
"Tell my girlfriend everything. And that I loved her."
Amy's lips were pressed tight at that request. "I don't think…" she started.
"We'll do it," Mina replied, cutting Amy off.
He closed his eyes. "Thank you." He slid down in the car seat, slumped over the armrest.
"You done here?" Amy asked Mina. "Want to hold hands with him or something?"
Mina closed her eyes, a little bit irritated at Amy's anger, but she was right. Nephrite had probably gotten to her in that conversation.
"Nah," Mina said. "Let's get going. We've got a world to save."
As Amy and Mina approached their car, they were interrupted by a message from the President over their radio.
"Mina, Amy, this is the President."
"Yes Madame President," Amy immediately responded. It struck her as very unusual to be talking this candidly with the President all of a sudden.
"I just got a call from one of my remaining commanders in Japan, at Yokota Air Base."
Mina vaguely remembered going to the base for "Friendship Day," an annual event held there to help bolster cooperation (and create good PR) between the locals and the US military.
"Yes, what about it?"
"They have three girls in custody, and it appears that they were being chased by the Nakanishi PMC."
"Yep, they're with us," Amy immediately replied. She didn't need to have any more confirmation; whatever was going on in Japan, it was going south for the SAILOR Team at the moment, and seeking refuge at one of the largest Air Bases in the Pacific was a sound move.
"What identifying characteristics do they have?" the President asked.
"Er, one of them has prosthetic legs, one a prosthetic left arm, a one with a couple of fingers missing. One of them is a little bit chubby as well." Mina snickered at the not-so subtle dig that Amy got off at Serena.
"Okay, that's them then. By the way…they arrived in a Bugatti Veyron and were packing lots of weapons."
Amy did not want to know where they got that from.
"Are they alright?"
"Yes, they're doing fine. That's all I wanted to know."
"One other thing, Madame President," she said.
"Yes?"
"We got the COO of Nakanishi North America. We'll send the location to the local police, but he's given us the location of the other officers."
"Understood. Thank you."
"Not a problem, Madame President."
The transmission ended almost as soon as it began. POTUS had a lot of work ahead of her, and Amy didn't exactly envy her at the moment.
"Come on," she motioned to Mina, who was staring at the slumped over body of Nephrite. "Let's go."
They left, leaving Nephrite to die in that cold SUV, alone in a foreign land.