"This is Ecta 6-4 calling Neopan 4-0-0. Confirm cumulonimbus clouds in your immediate flightpath, over."
Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki stood on a balcony at the Ashitaka base, watching as the Eva-laden transport plane began its descent toward the extremely long runway. It was nominally a forward command post, for in case an Angel attacked from the Suruga Bay rather than Sagami like most had, but they'd hastily repurposed it as a testing facility after Matsushiro was destroyed. The Eva was arriving well ahead of schedule, and she'd have to cancel Misato's promise of a weekend off to get it activated; she wasn't willing to do that yet, though, not when she still had her own concerns about the Fourth Child.
"That was mean," Fuyutsuki opened.
"Mm-hmm," said Ritsuko.
"Is the same thing going to happen here?" he asked.
"No. Or if it does, it won't be my fault. The Fourth is obviously with Seele, and we both know they can never let things just work."
"They do get us our funding," he pointed out.
"The ninth Angel," Ritsuko succinctly replied. "If Asuka hadn't managed to neutralise its AT Field, the Evas would have run out of power without destroying it, we couldn't have recharged them, and we'd all be LCL right now. Seele may do some good, but … have you ever heard the story of the frog and the scorpion?"
"I have. Will you put the Fourth into Unit-03?"
"Do I have a choice? Not only has the Commander ordered it, but we're barely holding out against the Angels as is. We need to continue expanding our firepower."
Fuyutsuki made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat.
"And what about you, Subcommander? Have you made any progress with dealing with our so-called benefactors?"
"I haven't found an opening yet. They're slippery."
"True."
She lit a cigarette as the massive American transport plane touched down on the runway.
…
Makoto rang the bell for the first apartment on his list. He wasn't too sure about the location; there was heavy construction going on across three of the four adjoining city blocks, and the noise of drilling and jackhammers was quickly becoming unbearable.
Nobody answered.
He tried ringing again, and again, nothing happened. He shrugged and tried it: unlocked.
Inside was an old lady sitting on a rocking chair, reading a novel. She looked up as he arrived.
"Oh, you must be Mr Hyuga!" she shouted. "You should have rung."
"I tried!" he shouted back. "You mustn't have heard over the noise!"
"The bell's beside the doorknob! Come now, let me show you around!" She got up and led him to the elevator.
"Is it always this noisy?!" he asked.
"Yes, it's lovely, isn't it, dear!" she replied.
He raised an eyebrow.
They got off at the fourth floor, and she hobbled along to show him an empty apartment. It was quite nice in and of itself, with everything he could possibly ask for, except for industrial-grade insulation and, ideally, active noise cancellation.
"Do they ever stop?!"
She nodded and smiled. "You'll have to speak up, Mr Hyuga, I'm quite deaf!"
"Of course you are," he muttered. "The construction crews! Do they ever stop?!"
"Yes, of course! The union would never let one shift work twenty-four hours a day!"
"Okay. Thanks!" He forced a smile. "I promised I'd visit some other places today, but I'll call you back!"
…
Rei walked, a shopping bag in either hand. Her expression was perfectly neutral; even Ikari Gendo wouldn't have realised what was going on inside her mind.
I want.
For so much of her life, things had been simple. There were rules, mostly low-level ones like 'brush your teeth before going to sleep' but a few higher-level ones, such as the one that Ikari Gendo referred to as her zeroeth rule, 'always act in accordance with the Scenario'. When given a choice, she took the option dictated by the rules. If this wasn't clear, the rule was that she would seek clarification. At no point did wants enter into consideration.
At the time, she had believed that this was because wanting things was superfluous; there were no rules for them and they generally were contrary to the zeroeth rule. Now, though, she wanted things – lots of things – and even though she understood that they were at odds with the Scenario, she couldn't not want them. She couldn't even bring herself to feel bad about it.
One of her shopping bags contained a week's servings of her usual ramen and microwave dinners, but the other had two ears of corn, a tomato, three shishito, and a potato, which she had selected more or less at random from the local supermarket's vegetable section.
If she continued to want things beyond what Ikari had ordered her to do, and if she continued to act to acquire them, she would be explicitly disobeying him, the man who was responsible for her life. This was almost conceptually unthinkable. She was his instrument, or perhaps vessel; if she didn't act to further his ends, she had no reason for being. It was almost unthinkable, but not quite.
He had never suggested that there might be a middle ground; her rules-based mindset didn't allow for shades of grey, only for performance or dereliction of duty. If she chose to do other than obey, she was worthless; and yet she knew that she would, regardless of the consequences. It was a strange concept; like standing on train lines and seeing approaching headlights, and knowing that one would be unwilling to step out of the way. A kind of philosophical suicide, perhaps.
She stopped short and snapped out of her reverie: her apartment door was already open.
A pair of shoes not her own sat just inside. She stared for long moments. They were running shoes, larger than hers, belonging to either a boy or a very lanky girl. They were made of cheap pink plastic, scratched and spattered with mud, but were lined up neatly, whereas she generally let her shoes lie where they fell.
She proceeded. On her bed was the intruder, a tall, skinny girl in a yellow shirt and blue skirt, lying on her front with her legs idly kicking the air. She had an old bandage crusted with Rei's blood in one hand and a bottle of Rei's medication in the other, and was apparently reading its ingredient list with deep fascination. A brown satchel lay at her side. At Rei's approach, she looked up and with a smile and brilliant green eyes, without setting down the bottle.
"Hello, Ayanami Rei," she said. "I've waited a long time to meet you."
Rei paused for a long moment. "I see," she said, then went to her kitchen to set down her bags. She returned. "Who are you?"
"I'm Mogami Chitose," said the girl. "I'm the Fifth Child."
Rei considered this, then walked to the door, slipped on her shoes, and left the apartment.
…
Maya carried two bags full of psychiatry books from the library into her apartment. The idiotic double was still sitting where she'd left it/her, in her wardrobe, in case someone came over and she couldn't think of a good excuse to get rid of them. She set down the bags, and took out the first lead, Capgras' 1923 paper on 'the illusion of look-alikes'.
…
Chitose followed her, of course, keeping up easily with her long stride, her head twisting from side to side with each step. Rei had the impression she had never seen a city before; Shinji had been similarly impressed when he first arrived at the Geofront, although he was more subdued. Chitose had the air of fearlessness of someone who had drunk too much; unlike most girls, she met the gazes of a few workmen who wolf-whistled as they passed, before her head turned to follow their cranes and other equipment.
"What's piloting like?" she asked.
"It is," Rei said.
She considered how to do such a question justice and whether she needed to answer it at all.
"Could you give me some adjectives, maybe?" Chitose suggested.
"Comforting," said Rei.
"That's nice to hear. But is that including when you get hurt? I know that Evas give sympathetic pain to pilots. Or do you not get damaged much? You've been piloting the longest, so maybe you're the most experienced and best at survival?"
Rei rather doubted this, and it occurred to her that she wished it were otherwise, that she wanted to survive. Previously, this was because she would be unable to fulfil the Scenario if dead or too wounded; but now she wanted to survive in and of itself, even past the Scenario, impossible though it was. Of course, it was unlikely to matter, because as far as she knew she was permanently grounded.
"Ayanami Rei – may I call you just Rei, or even just Ayanami? Five or six syllables is pretty long for something I'll need to say a lot. Or would that be ambiguous? Are there many other people called Rei or Ayanami in Tokyo-3? I don't mind if you call me just Mogami or Chitose. Or both, if you'd like. Do many people around here mind?"
Rei had been taught to address people by their surname, and to expect the same formality, but it now occurred to her that Ikari Shinji and Soryu did otherwise, as did Major Katsuragi, and this didn't seem to cause them any problems. The rules were clear about this, though. She could overlook the informality if others did it, but it would feel too odd to do it herself. "Not all," she said.
Chitose's smile brightened for a moment. "You must know a lot of people. Who else will I meet, working at Nerv? I had the impression it was quite a large organisation?"
"You would meet the other Children and our handlers," Rei said.
"Is one of them your boyfriend?" Chitose asked.
Rei took a sharp intake of air, and cast her a sideways look, her equivalent of dropping her jaw.
"Girls usually like having boyfriends," Chitose explained, looking absurdly pleased with herself. "They like spending time with them, so you'd probably prefer one who was also a pilot. Am I right?"
Rei resumed looking directly forward. "No."
"Oh." Chitose thought about it for a moment. "Do you not want a boyfriend?"
Rei said nothing.
"I'm pretty sure the Third Child is a boy," Chitose mused. "And the Fourth, obviously, but I know he isn't your boyfriend. Is this Nerv?" Rei had just turned into an apartment block.
They crossed the foyer to the elevators, and took one up to the second storey. Rei walked past a few doors, then pressed a bell.
Shinji opened the door. "Oh, Ayanami! Hello. And … um …"
"I'm Mogami Chitose," she said brightly. "You must be Ikari Shinji, right? I've seen your photo. May I call you Shinji? It's fewer syllables and less likely to be confused with Ikari Gendo."
"Um," said Shinji. "Okay?" It wasn't really, but he was too surprised to refuse.
"Is Major Katsuragi in?" Rei asked Shinji.
"I think she's just finishing a shower," he said. "Are you two friends?"
Rei had to think about this, as she wasn't an expert on friendship, but Chitose beat her to it. "Yes! And we're flatmates, too."
Rei gave her a glance of 'We are?', but said nothing and proceeded to the bathroom.
"Is this Nerv HQ?" Chitose asked, stepping out of her shoes and looking around. "I wouldn't have thought you could fit an Eva here."
"Huh? No, this is just Misato's apartment. HQ is underground."
"Really? Why don't you live there?"
"I …" This was the most personal questions anyone had ever asked Shinji at a time before. "Misato offered to take me in; this is her apartment."
"Okay. But why doesn't she live there? I mean, surely you should live near your Eva, so you can get to it quickly when an Angel appears?"
Shinji shrugged. "Well, it's not like we need to launch within a few minutes of spotting one. And I guess she likes living above ground? There's not really much of a city down there. I think it's mostly restricted access, except for work. It'd be pretty inconvenient the rest of the time for me, because school's above ground."
"Hmm … why don't they put the entire city in the Geofront, then? Isn't that the point of a Geofront? Oh, unless lots of people like living above ground? The sun is pretty neat," she added, glancing back at the still-open door.
"You're not from around here, are you," Shinji said.
The bathroom door slid open, and out walked Misato, fixing the top button of her blouse and towelling her hair, Rei in tow.
"Hello," Misato said. "Rei said something about a Fifth Child?"
"Wait, you're the Fifth?" Shinji said, eyes widening. "So soon after the Fourth?"
"Yes!" Chitose beamed. "Oh, well, I suppose technically I might not be, because the Marduk Institute gets to decide about the numbering system, but I am an Angel hunter. Or, I can be. Are you in charge? I'm Mogami Chitose."
"I am," Misato said noncommittally.
She gave the girl a once-over. Her clothing was mismatched, her hair scruffy and unwashed, and there was mud at the ankles of her stockings. Her bag looked incongruously new. She had a Japanese name, but the accent and manners of someone who learnt it as a second language, and Misato would have pegged her as half-Chinese, half-Caucasian. Her hair was the dark brown that was the best dye could do to black hair without bleaching it first.
"I didn't hear anything about that from the Marduk Institute," Misato said. "Or the higher-ups at Nerv. Or anyone."
"No, they probably didn't realise I was coming," Chitose said, her smile unwavering.
"Do you have any paperwork?"
"No."
"You must have a handler?"
Chitose considered this. "Not any more. There was an accident. Don't worry about me; I can look after myself. Especially with Rei's help! I'm actually quite looking forward to it."
There was a pause, while Misato waited for her to elaborate on the nature of this accident, but elaboration was not forthcoming.
"Uh-huh. Do you have ID?"
"Maybe? What does it stand for, in this context?"
"Rei, could I have a word," Misato ordered, and pulled her back into the bathroom. "Is there any reason you don't think she's either crazy or a homeless girl hoping for a few meals?"
Rei paused. That had honestly not occurred to her.
Misato sighed. "Right. If you meet anyone else like this, call social services. I feel sorry for her, but I don't have the resources to take in every stray in the city, understand? They'll take care of her."
"Yes, Major."
She slid the door back open.
Asuka chose that moment to leave the TV and investigate. "Are you stupid? Invite them inside, or at least oh God no."
"Asuka-chan!" Chitose exclaimed, delighted. She ran up and hugged Asuka, who went rigid. "I missed you so much! How have you been!" She blinked. "Oh! Are you and Shinji married?"
There was a pause.
"No!" Shinji and Asuka shouted in unison, both turning bright red.
Asuka threw Chitose's arms off. "God, no! Why would you even think that? No!"
"Because he's not Rei's boyfriend," Chitose explained. "And you're living together. You're pilots, so you must spend lots of time together. It would be very convenient for you if you were married. And you're both very beautiful."
Shinji frowned. He'd been called beautiful more than once before, but never handsome.
"That is," Asuka began, "the stupidest – I don't – you – that doesn't even –"
"Well, I suppose you might just be boyfriend and girlfriend," Chitose mused.
"You two know each other?" Misato interrupted.
"Yes, God help me," Asuka said. "She was the third pilot candidate at Nerv-Germany."
"Huh," said Misato. "Give me a moment."
She ducked back into the bathroom and took out her phone. "Ritz? Rei's just turned up with a strange girl who's claiming to be the Fifth Child. Emphasis on the strange."
"More or less so than Rei?"
"Mm … about the same, but in a different way."
"Well, I haven't heard anything about a Fifth," said Ritsuko, holding her phone with her shoulder so she could continue to type with both hands. "I'd think she's probably just a civilian who thinks it sounds glamorous."
"That's what I thought, but Asuka says she knows her from Germany."
"She does? Well … I was feeling nervous about letting the Fourth into Unit-03 … send her into HQ. I'll have Maya do a basic synch scan to check whether she's a viable candidate."
"Are you sure? She has no papers, no handler, nothing, and I don't think she'd pass the Turing test."
"That won't matter for the scans, and even if it did, Nerv already isn't exactly the poster organisation for good mental health. In all seriousness, I honestly wouldn't care if she's homeless or a little bit crazy, if she can make Eva move. If she can, she's usable. And if Asuka thinks so, well, I'd rather waste an hour on a pointless test than risk having to clean up another Matsushiro." And, more importantly, she wouldn't trust Nagisa as far as she could throw Unit-03.
"Well, you're the expert. If you think she's worth it, I'll take her in to Nerv now."
"Thanks, Misato."
"Shall I tell the Commander?"
"No, leave dealing with him to me," said Ritsuko. She hung up. "Fuyutsuki? How would you feel about me owing you a favour?"
Misato opened the door to see Asuka chewing Chitose out. "And how did you survive Berlin? Smarmy hasn't said anything."
"Are you still calling him that?" Chitose asked. "You know his name's Nagisa Kaworu, don't you?"
"Yes, but I'm not going to call him that until he starts being normal. I haven't got my hopes up."
"I always admired how persistent you were," Chitose said. "I've never been able to get in the habit of calling people nicknames. I just forget about it, every time. Although there's one that I'm trying to, just to be nice, because he has a sweet one for me, so I remember whenever he says it."
"Mogami?" Misato said, a little more nicely this time. "I just got word from the head of Project E. She wants me to take you in for a preliminary scan. If it goes well, you could be cleared for activation soon."
"Really?" Chitose said enthusiastically.
"Really?" Asuka said despairingly.
Chitose followed Misato out of the apartment.
"Are all the oddballs from Third Branch going to show up?" Asuka asked rhetorically. "Maybe my old ballet instructor?"
"You do ballet?" Shinji asked, deciding not to point out that Chitose had flattered her way out of Asuka's question.
"I did. They made us try lots of things when they were still figuring out synchronisation." Asuka rounded on Rei. "Well?"
Rei had never fit in with large groups. Even being in 2-A's classroom made her uneasy. Being in groups of only two were worse; she had an unpleasant memory of riding an elevator with another girl once, and standing in total silence for over a minute, all the while feeling as though she should be saying something because people say things to each other, but not knowing any rules to guide her in what to say. A group of three, though, was surprisingly pleasant. It was intimate enough that she could feel a part of it and had enough other people to banish long silences.
"I have never studied ballet," she said.
"That's not – ugh, never mind. It's my own fault for saying it like that. Why did you bring her over here?"
"Because she asked."
Asuka massaged her temple. "Why you specifically."
"She has decided she will be my flatmate," Rei said.
"'She' has decided? What about what you want?"
Rei thought for a moment. Chitose was … unexpected, but not obviously a problem. "It is fine."
Asuka narrowed her eyes. "Fine? You mean you were ordered."
"I was not ordered to share my flat with her," Rei said. Nor was she consulted, but still.
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Well, we have to finish that essay for Tuesday," she said. Shinji opened his mouth to point out that that wasn't exactly what she'd been doing; she swept over him. "You can stay, First, but it'll be really boring."
Rei looked from her to Shinji. She should probably head home and reread an operations manual. "Thank you," she said instead.
"Have you had lunch?" Shinji asked. "I'll put some rice on."
Asuka tossed her hair ostentatiously and returned to the living room. Rei followed.
…
Makoto breathed through his mouth, as shallowly as he could. There was an overpowering aroma in the air, and he didn't think it wise to agree to buy anything while under its influence. A lanky man in his twenties was showing him around the second apartment on his list.
The guide slid open a door, and a wall of smoke poured out. "This's the bathroom," he said. "Shower, bath, sink, you know. Toilet's over there."
Makoto coughed and squinted. There was another man in the bathtub, apparently asleep, holding a hand-rolled cigarette that didn't contain tobacco. "Why isn't the smoke alarm going off?" he asked.
"Huh? Oh, that thing that kept waking us up whenever anyone lit up? We took the batteries out, it's way better now. Kitchen's through here …"
"Oh, look at the time," said Makoto. "I'm late for a dentist's appointment. I'll call you later, okay?"
"Sure," said the guide, waving him off. "That was quick."
…
Maya met Misato at the trans-Geofront monorail depot.
"Should I come down with you?" Misato asked.
Maya brushed this off. "I've ridden it a thousand times before. And it's not like Mogami-chan is going to run off, is it?" She smiled at the girl, who was actually a few centimetres taller than her.
"Would anyone?" Chitose asked. "I mean, you won't let me pilot until I'm scanned, will you?"
Misato accepted this reluctantly, and waved them off. Chitose oohed at the Geofront, and her head spun as Maya led her from the tram to the station, then into the great pyramid of HQ, and down a labyrinthine series of passages. Chitose held her up at a vending machine.
"I haven't eaten yet today," she explained. She pulled a fat leather wallet from her bag, and removed a wad of cash. She searched around for a note small enough to buy an energy bar.
"Mogami … how much money is that?" Maya squeaked.
"Um, let me see … I kept losing track when I was counting it, and I can't remember how much I've spent, but I'm pretty sure it's a bit over a hundred thousand yen?" Chitose guessed, munching happily on her bar. "I put all the smaller notes into this one."
Maya blinked. "The … smaller notes?"
"Only the ones a thousand yen and lower. I put the larger ones in a second wallet. I thought it would be more organised if I split my money up that way."
Maya did some mental arithmetic. Assume the other wallet was equally full, and that its average denomination was ten times as high. That gave the girl upward of one point one million yen in cash, close to two months of her wages.
"And you're just … carrying it all on you."
"I wouldn't be able to spend it if I didn't," Chitose explained. "Why? Do people not usually do that?"
"Well, um." Someone might, if they had – for example – just robbed a bank, or been paid in unmarked bills for a large drug sale. "A debit card is more convenient, and you won't lose all your money if you forget it."
"I see. I'll get that, then. How do I do that?"
"I'll take you to a bank after the test," Maya said, glad that most companies in Tokyo-3 looked the other way whenever a senior Nerv employee did anything obviously illegal. "It's just a bit past here."
They turned the corner and saw an unshaven man sitting at a bench, reading a newspaper. He looked up and caught Maya's eye as she approached.
"Miss Ibuki," he said, nodding respectfully.
"Mister Kaji," she replied. "I didn't know you worked weekends." In fact, she wasn't aware that he worked at all; he seemed to do precious little but drink coffee and hit on the interns.
"Oh, I don't. But if I'm not working, I figure I might as well do it somewhere climate-controlled." His gaze fell on Chitose. "You must be Miss Mogami."
All of a sudden, the energy in the room changed. It was as though someone had turned on a high-powered Van de Graaff generator, and there was a static charge building. Maya felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck rise.
"I don't think we've met before, Mister Kaji," Chitose said, speaking very slowly and clearly, half an octave lower than usual. Her habitual benign smile vanished; her face went completely blank.
"I heard about you from office gossip," Kaji said. His easy smile was still there, but it looked just a little bit fixed. "You'd be surprised how much of it there is for how secretive Nerv tries to be."
"I see," said Chitose. "Is there going to be a problem?"
The electric charge crescendoed.
Kaji shrugged. "No problem. Actually, I was just about to go for a walk. I'll see you both around." He folded his paper under his arm, got to his feet, and walked past them. Chitose followed his progress, until he vanished around a corner.
"That was … awfully fast for gossip," Maya frowned.
"Well!" said Chitose, even more brightly than before, "I suppose that means we should hurry, before everyone finds out and it's not a surprise any more!"
Maya would have probed into this, but she was on the clock, so they continued down the corridor, into the old synch test room. Before they started, she stretched and worked out a kink in her neck. She respected Doctor Akagi's opinion on many things, but the woman was an incurable workaholic and had no respect for Sundays.
The room was full of mostly custom-built machinery that looked like it was straight out of a sci-fi movie, although much of it was dusty from disuse. The room had been partly used as a storage cupboard by lazy maintenance crews, so there were also spare parts, tins of paint, and a trolley still laden with objects obscured by sealed plastic bags.
She quickly swept the dust off an operating table and set a white sheet over it. "Please put these on and lie down," offering a set of what looked like A-10 connectors, which were attached by a lead to a large, clunky machine. She plugged her laptop into the machine with a USB jack.
Chitose took the connectors, clumsily fastened them against her scalp, and lay down on the table. "What's this do? I mean, more specifically than showing I can pilot."
It technically didn't prove that at all; the only thing that could determine that for sure was to stick her in an entry plug and see what happened. The idea was a cheap preliminary test which would weed out the majority of completely unsuitable would-be pilots without risking another berserker incident or AT explosion, but there was no guarantee against false positives.
"It scans your brain's topographical connections with your CNS," Maya sort-of explained instead, typing as she talked. "When you synchronise with Eva, for it to work effectively, your nervous system needs to be shaped the same way as Eva's. Look at the colours, please." She entered commands into the scan program, and a video projector shone a kaleidoscopic movie onto the white ceiling, a swirling rainbow rapidly fluctuating in hue, intensity, and chroma.
"Ooh."
"Human brains aren't all identical; different people have different numbers of neurons and different synaptic topologies, so we need to make sure there aren't any problems from that. Luckily, all human brains are connected to the rest of the nervous system in very similar ways, so that simplifies things a lot, but brains are still complicated things internally."
"What do the lights mean?"
"Nothing, they're pseudorandom, but they statistically resemble some of the neural noise caused by synchronisation. You see something like that whenever we activate your Eva, although that's heard directly by your brain, and this goes through your optic nerve. The tests need to see how your brain behaves under standard synchro conditions."
"I don't remember doing this in Berlin."
"If you were selected with Asuka, that would've been … nine years ago? This system was only developed six years ago. It was mostly tested in-house with Rei. This was before I joined Nerv. We don't share technology with the other branches anywhere near enough; Berlin probably never would have got it anyway." She watched the stream of data flow past. She twisted a dial to bias the random number generator and noted how Chitose's neurograph shifted; all within tolerances. "Well, this is all looking good so far."
"Is there any way it wouldn't? I mean, I was a candidate; they wouldn't have let me do that if I wouldn't actually be able to pilot. Unless the Evas are different to how they thought they'd be, back then? But if that were the case, Asuka shouldn't be able to pilot. Or Kaworu. Do you know why the Eva went berserk for him?"
"There are lots of reasons why. It might just be Unit-00. It went berserk for Rei, too, the first time."
"Has anyone else tried it?"
"No, just those two. It's the most temperamental, and the Marduk Institute isn't really interested in looking for spare pilots for it anyway, since it's weaker than the others. If you're cleared, you'll be assigned to Unit-03. Maybe we'll try to put Kaworu into Unit-00 again."
"That's the one made with mostly Lilith, isn't it? Don't bother. It won't work, no matter how many times you try."
Maya did a double-take.
"Are you still recording?"
"Oh?" She twisted the dial the other way. "How do you know about that?"
"Hm? Oh. The reason Kaworu can pilot is he has a sort of … neural override, but it can only interface with the later models. He can do Unit-03 onward, I think Unit-02, and maybe Unit-01, but Unit-00 doesn't have the interface at all. He'll never be able to synchronise with it."
She'd meant, how did Chitose know about Lilith, but this was more interesting. "Could you?"
"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I could use any of the other Evas. But you must have designed Unit-00 to synch with Rei specifically, right? I mean, you only finished Unit-00 a few months before the third Angel arrived, so you were probably rushing and using every trick you could think of, so you could have a working Eva to give trial data for Unit-01. But Rei's special, isn't she? Anything custom-built for her won't work for me."
"I don't know about it. I was never involved in building the Evas."
"No, that was Dr Akagi, wasn't it? I think I'd like to talk to her. She sounds interesting."
"She is. She's my mentor."
"Really? Could you get me an appointment with her?"
"Maybe. She's very busy. I could try."
"Please do." Chitose thought for a moment. "Hang on. If you want Kaworu to be a reserve, you'd prefer him to be a reserve for Unit-03, because it's stronger. Isn't anyone at all using Unit-00? Why not? Is it broken?"
"No, we just finished repairs, but the Commander ordered it mothballed. I don't understand why, either; it does work, just not as well as the others. He is … sometimes sort of affectionate toward Rei, so maybe he wants to protect her?"
"What did he say when you asked?"
Maya blinked. "Asked? Oh, wow. You've definitely never met the Commander, have you."
Chitose frowned and made to get up.
"Stay where you are, please," Maya said. She hit some more switches; a set of speakers began playing what sounded like a techno remix of whalesong, and there was a strong smell of blueberries and sake. She searched around for a moment, then found a duster and began brushing it against Chitose's knees; the girl giggled. "You're looking good. The machine still needs to gather data in the presence of more stimuli, just to be complete." She continued for a minute, and the machine beeped. "Okay, we're all done. This is all looks great. You can sit up; let me pop outside and tell my boss the good news."
She took a moment to thank whoever thought to build the elaborate network of telecoms relays that transmitted her signal to the surface and then from one of Nerv's terrestrial radio towers. It would have been a pain to have to take the monorail back to the surface to call her boss. "Senpai? I have the preliminary data from Mogami. She's perfect, technically."
"Technically?"
"In the sense that her technical specifications are all within desired parameters. Her chi-squared values are all excellent. But, psychologically, she's …"
"Neurotic? A wreck? Well, she won't have any trouble fitting in with the others, then."
"Senpai!"
"Tell me I'm wrong, Maya."
Maya shook her head. On top of the workaholism, she had a nagging feeling that her superior might be a clinical psychopath. "I wouldn't call her neurotic, but she's … I don't know what to call it. I'm not sure if modern psychiatry even has the vocabulary."
"Does Japanese?"
"It's not that she's unintelligent. She asks sensible questions, and makes good guesses. Really good guesses. She knows things about Eva which Makoto and Shigeru don't, and which I wouldn't if you hadn't personally told me because I'm your understudy. But she doesn't know what a debit card is. It's like she was born yesterday, and spent the time since reading classified dossiers on Nerv. I can't recommend her for piloting."
"Why not? You don't need a debit card to pilot."
"Senpai!"
"I sympathise with your concerns, Maya, but there are … issues with using the Fourth Child."
"With respect, Senpai, if issues are what you're worried about …"
"Yes, yes, I'm sure she's just as big a bundle of deep-rooted psychological trauma as the first three, but sometimes in science, the only way to find out whether a hive is full of honey or hornets is to put on your running shoes and poke it with a stick."
Ritsuko had been thinking about it more, and it seemed almost certain to annoy Seele, one way or another. Fast-tracking the girl would force them to reveal at least one card from their hand, even if through inaction. Besides, if worst came to worst, they could always just bump her later.
"I … will defer to your judgement, Senpai," said Maya, who didn't see how it could possibly be a good idea but who had learned not to doubt Dr Akagi.
"Thank you. And do me a favour and don't gossip about her? Not with Hyuga or Aoba, not Misato, and definitely not with Kaji. And make absolutely sure he's never alone with her."
"What's happened with Kaji? I ran into him on the way down. I don't think Mogami likes him."
"I'm just trying to avoid employee conflict," Ritsuko said. "Speaking of which, would you mind calling Asuka in? I want her on guard duty again."
"Er …"
"Thanks, Maya. I've got to go; I have another call." She transferred lines. "Kaji. Fancy hearing from you. And I expected today to be quiet."
"Good morning to you too. You've been talking with Maya, I take it?"
"Of course. I am her superior, after all. Are you going to tell me about Miss Mogami?"
"I can tell you that she's dangerous. Don't let her into Unit-03."
"I figured that one out on my own, Kaji, but thanks anyway," Ritsuko said, amused. "What am I supposed to do for its pilot, then? It's either her or Nagisa."
"She's more dangerous than him. I can't tell you why, but she is."
Ritsuko shut her eyes and thought. "If you know something about her that I don't, she has something to do with the Government or Seele. I'm going to take a blind shot in the dark and guess Seele. Nagisa is theirs, and they'd happily sabotage a better pilot if it would make us dependent on their cat's paw."
"If that's a sticking point, they might be able to lean on Marduk to find a Sixth Child. A neutral."
"If they can find a sixth, we'll still have no guarantee that that one isn't a spy too, for Seele or anyone else, and we'll have another pointless delay of two weeks at least, probably more like a month. By memory, Magi estimates about two chances in three of another attack before then. Besides, if the reason why she's dangerous were a problem for me or Nerv, they'd let you tell me why, because that would persuade me more certainly. Therefore, she's only a problem for Seele."
"I don't know why they think she's dangerous, but they wouldn't necessarily tell you. They're keeping plenty of other secrets from you."
"So, there's information which would make me change my mind and do what they want, but they're not telling me because they like being secretive just that much? Even if I believed that for a second, I'd ignore it just to teach them a lesson."
"Even if they are lying, they're still not going to let you keep her. They want her back."
Ritsuko made a mental note of his last word. "Then you can tell them that if they want us to do our job and stop Third Impact, they can start by not confiscating a third of our firepower. Good luck, Kaji." She hung up before he could respond.
Fuyutsuki was standing beside her. "So, Seele has a problem with this girl," he said.
"We don't know how or why, and they might even be bluffing, but if not, then she's a threat to their Scenario which probably doesn't risk Third Impact. Sounds like you have your opening, Fuyutsuki," Ritsuko observed.
"Call me Kozo," he said. "It would be … inconvenient if they suspected me of moving against them."
"Blame it all on me, if you like. They already hate me, and they can't get rid of me."
"Is that so?"
"Seele is full of mystics. I'm a scientist. We had an … interesting first meeting, and relations never really thawed. Besides, they probably suspect that my Scenario and theirs don't quite overlap, and also I maintain and helped design the giant sacrilegious abominations we use to kill God's messengers."
"I can see those being problems," Kozo agreed, exchanging smiles with the doctor.
…
Makoto stepped into the third apartment on his list. Every single surface was covered in bees.
"…" he said.
A woman in full apiarist netting bustled up behind him, carrying a smoke gun. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I run the bee farm downstairs. Don't worry, they're lovely really, they hardly ever sting. Usually they're so well-behaved – or more like bee-hived –" she chuckled "– and they don't escape very often at all."
His face perfectly neutral, Makoto turned around and walked away without a word.
…
"This is stupid. This is so stupid."
Ritsuko rubbed a temple. "Maya, could you shut her up for a minute?"
"Um, I don't think so. I'm the one who made her come in."
Fuyutsuki took the call. "Pilot Soryu, I would appreciate it if you tried not to stab the workers here."
She huffed. One time, and the old geezer would never let her live it down. It wasn't like she had even killed anyone, it was just a forklift.
She was again standing outside on guard duty, while the science team was inside, trying to synch the new pilot. For whatever reason, the scientists seemed much more confident of this one; Ritsuko was here in person this time, and she had good survival instincts, so it probably almost definitely wouldn't go wrong again. Asuka was still nervous, and kept shifting her weight from one leg to the other, much to the disquiet of the technicians nearest her.
Chitose's face appeared in her HUD, framed by her new A-10 connectors and yellow plugsuit. She was in the plug, awaiting insertion. "Asuka! This is so exciting!"
"You can just see I'm pumped," Asuka said.
"I know! We'll finally be together, saving the world from the Angels!"
"Oh, look, I've got another call," Asuka said, and cut Chitose's connection. "Ugh. I never thought I'd find myself missing having the Idiot for backup. Why did it have to be the Weird Girl? Why are there no normal pilots except me?"
"I'm not touching that one," Ritsuko murmured. Kozo snorted. "Insert the entry plug!"
"I am curious, though," he said. "Aren't you worried that she might have an agenda?"
"I think we're past the point of thinking that, and no, not worried."
"So, if she were to try to use Eva to kill us all …"
She pulled a remote out of her pocket. "I took the liberty of installing a manual override."
"Doesn't Eva have a habit of rejecting those?"
"This particular override doesn't use the Eva's systems at all, so no, not a problem."
"How does it work?"
"With fifteen kilograms of C4 in the pilot's seat," Ritsuko said coolly. "You'll notice that the entry plug is pointing away from us. I'm betting that whatever her story is, she can be useful to us, but I do like to hedge my bets."
"For some reason, I don't find myself reassured," said Kozo.
"You should. I have no reason to blow you up at present. Start the first connection!"
They watched eight monitors, showing various psychometric, biometric, and mechanical data. All were within acceptable ranges. "Connect main power supply!"
The junior techs shouted technobabble to one another, as the voltage reached critical and the Eva powered up.
"Eee!" Chitose squealed.
"What is it?" Ritsuko asked urgently.
"That tickles!"
Ritsuko shook her head angrily, hand over heart. "Everyone, stay alert. Clearing absolute borderline in 0.5 … 0.4 … 0.3 …"
Asuka drew her prog knife and activated it.
"… 0.2 …"
Kozo leant forward, biting his lip.
"… 0.1 …"
Shinji sat on his futon, worrying about Asuka.
"Absolute borderline cleared!" Ritsuko announced, relieved. "She's successfully activated. Good work, everyone." Her phone buzzed. "Yes? Well, well. Someone has a remarkably good sense of timing. Send the alerts." She clicked it off. "The thirteenth Angel is approaching."
…
Misato's first impression was of a gigantic violet sea urchin, or maybe a dandelion seed. It had a red spherical core, from which protruded hundreds or thousands of long, slender spines in all directions. It had somehow bobbed to the surface of the ocean a few kilometres out, and was rolling along atop the waves at what Magi calculated was a steady 59 kmph.
Together with Kozo, Maya, Makoto, Shigeru, and some junior support staff, Misato and Ritsuko had set up a forward command centre at Ashitaka. Asuka was waiting at the beach with a small armoury; Chitose was still in the activation chamber, learning how to walk without losing balance; Rei was waiting inside the Geofront on the Commander's orders; Shinji was in an overwatch transport circling five kilometres above the ground. Misato had decided to hold him in reserve as a compromise between risking defeat in detail and risking having all three active Evas wiped out at once by an unknown ability.
"It can't actually be light enough to float, can it?" she asked.
"Unlikely," said Ritsuko. "Almost none of it's submerged; it would need to be almost as light as air. I think it's using its AT Field to give itself buoyancy without weakening its shield. All of the terrestrial Angels do a similar thing to keep from sinking into the earth, and to stop the square-cube law from crushing them."
"Fascinating. Hyuga, give the UN forces the go-ahead."
There were ten tense seconds, before they heard the blasts of artillery and saw ground attack craft diving in. The explosions splashed off scintillating walls of orange light, with no further effect. The Angel didn't give any retaliatory attacks, change speed or direction, or otherwise respond.
"Those explosions looked a little on the small side," Misato noted.
"Those were standard one-ton bombs, and 105-mm artillery," Makoto confirmed.
They considered this.
"How big is this thing?" she asked.
Maya loaded a rangefinder and triangulation program. "It's close to spherical, and mostly empty space, but its diameter is 319.6 metres," she reported.
"Right. Asuka, forget the glaive."
"Do I have to?" Asuka radioed back. "Guns are useless."
"They worked against the ninth."
"Yeah, when we had three Evas neutralising its AT Field."
"If you have a better idea, now would be a good time to share it."
At this point, the Angel was close enough that Asuka realised just how badly it had thrown her sense of perspective. It was over five times as tall as her and bristled with spikes comfortably twice her height, putting the core well out of her reach. All of a sudden, guns were looking pretty appealing. Asuka took a repeating missile launcher in one hand and a trusty pallet rifle in the other.
"AT Field to maximum," she said. "Engaging the target!"
She opened up with both weapons, spraying the Angel with high-explosive rounds and shells. Its AT Field bulged inward under her attack, but held. Still without changing course, it rolled forward.
"It's too strong at this distance. Big surprise. I'm going to wait for it to get closer."
"Stay alert," Misato cautioned. "We don't know what kind of attacks it has."
Asuka dropped both guns for a two-handed coilgun, which could supposedly fire a tungsten/titanium alloy needle the size of a bus at Mach 8. "Let's not find out, shall we?" She strode over to directly in the Angel's path.
It was rolling forward as fast as an urban car, but because of the scale, it was moving slower than an Eva could walk. Asuka crouched down and aimed her gun high, obviously planning to wait until it was virtually on top of her.
Shinji opened a line. "Asuka, be careful."
"Hey," she said with a smirk, "who's the ace pilot here?"
"You're cutting it close," Misato said. The Angel was two hundred metres away.
"Wait for it."
"Don't let it hit you."
"Wait."
"Asuka –"
Coilguns can theoretically be quiet, because there's no gunpowder and the projectile doesn't need to scrape along the barrel. In practice, though, the chamber is held under a vacuum which pops, there's the sonic boom of the projectile if it breaks the sound barrier, and the thunderclap of expanding superheated air in the needle's path. It flew forward faster than the eye could track, impossible to follow except by the plasma slipstream, punched clean through the Angel's AT Field, and ricocheted off a second wall of light, just around the Angel's core, with a sound like bells and shattering glass.
"No way," said Asuka.
"Nested AT Fields?" Ritsuko gasped. "Impossible."
The Angel still hadn't slowed.
"Asuka, get out of there!" Misato cried.
"I'm not done yet." Asuka dropped the coilgun and rose into a martial arts stance. The Angel kept coming; she dodged between two of its spines and grabbed a hold of a third. The spine dug into the ground, then continued turning and lifted into the air, taking her with it. "Unh! I can't get at the core from the ground, so I've got to get to the top of this tumbleweed …"
"She's insane," Ritsuko said flatly, not into the microphone.
"It's working," Misato murmured back. "Asuka, keep going!"
Another spine pierced her power cable; the battery began its countdown. Five minutes until shutdown. She ejected the cable.
"Thirty seconds until she's above its core," Maya read out from her terminal.
Chitose opened a link to Shinji. "Are all Angels like this one?"
"No, most of them would have zapped her by now," he replied.
"Do you have video of them? I should really familiarise myself with them."
"Ask Misato, after the battle. Come on, Asuka …"
Without warning, thick, pustular yellow fluid flowed out of pores all over the spike. Asuka gave a yelp and twitched to avoid it, but it was too unexpected. It slathered onto her hands; it was slippery, and she slid down the spine.
"Get away from it!" Misato exclaimed.
"I can't! I'm stuck!"
They watched on the video feed as she tried to prise her hands and thighs off the spine, but the yellow gunk held her against it even as she slid along. She reached its end and slipped off, still stuck in the same awkward pose with her hands and thighs pressed together, and crashed into the ground, now spattered all over by the goo.
"What the hell is this?!" Asuka squealed, struggling without effect. "How do I get it off?!"
"Magi's on it," Ritsuko said. "It's … a combination of substances. There's an adhesive, an anti-hygroscopic, a lubricant, that'd be why it doesn't stick to the Angel, four unknown substances … overall pH is 7.38, no redox detected, and … there's an AT resonance link to the Angel."
"Meaning?!"
"It's held together with a resonance effect of the Angel's … meaning, you won't be able to get it off until the Angel is destroyed."
Asuka snarled and raised her own AT Field to try to neutralise the resonance effect and pulled, but it yielded without breaking.
"Is there anything at all we can do?" Misato asked. "Dilute it, break it down with acid or fire?"
Ritsuko winced. Ever since Asuka arrived, she had made a point of never mentioning the Eva-scale flamethrower, hoping that everyone else would quietly forget about it. "Magi says yes, but that it would take at least nine hours. Since the target will reach Tokyo-3 in about five minutes …"
Misato gave a grunt of annoyance. "Fine then. Eject the pi–" She saw that the yellow gunk had spattered the armour plate covering the entry plug. It had also got into the power socket. "Belay that. Asuka, we have to leave you there until the target is silenced. Your life support will hold, and that stuff won't kill you. Cut the nerve connections!"
"What?!" Asuka cried. "No! Misato! Don't you dare! Don't you f–"
Her communications link went dead.
"Can Chitose fight?" Misato asked Ritsuko.
"Her synch rate is high enough to move, and not much more," Ritsuko said. "Mogami, how co-ordinated do you feel?"
"This foot is problematic," she said. Ritsuko opened a camera to the testing room; Chitose was limping around, clearly favouring one leg. After a moment, it became apparent that her right foot wasn't working properly; none of the joints was flexing at all. It was less like a human foot than a giant steel sculpture of one.
Ritsuko opened a triptych screen, with one showing a wireframe of Unit-03's foot and shin, one with a colour-coded nerve map, and one covered in raw numerical data. She began typing commands, and the foot slowly loosened up.
"Good," Misato said. "Aoba, get her on a plane and follow the target, hurry. Ritz, do we have any JATO packs large enough to independently move an Eva?"
"We tried that, but they're just too heavy without a wing," Ritsuko said, still typing. "The R-type equipment can do a semi-guided drop, but that's it. It'll take ten minutes to install, plus the time to get her to HQ."
"Too long. We'll have to do without it. Hyuga, have Tokyo-3 sink everything. Make it into a carpark!"
The Angel skittered across the landscape, held up by its AT Field. The UN forces stood back and watched as it rolled on, slowed, and finally stopped in the heart of the city.
A sheen of orange light shimmered under its core, then a second overlapping layer of yellow, and a third of yellow-green. They hummed and brightened for long moments, then shot downward. Pulverised concrete, rebar, and bits of cars shot up like shrapnel from a bomb. When the dust cleared, they could see the Angel was over a crater ten metres deep. Three more layers of light appeared under it.
"First armour plate cracked!" Makoto cried. "Magi estimates only fourteen minutes until it's through to the Geofront!"
"They're getting stronger," Misato mused, thinking of the fifth, which, despite its firepower, had taken hours to drill through their armour.
The three AT Fields slammed into the armour plate, tearing it apart and throwing it in all directions, before reforming for a third blow.
"It's too fast," Misato murmured. "Chitose! Deploy!"
Chitose dropped out of her plane, free-fell for ten seconds, hit the ground, skidded, fell to her knees, and pushed herself back upright. "Extending AT Field!" she said, approached the Angel, and raised her hands; its outer AT Field buckled and tore. "By the way, should I have a weapon right now?"
Fuyutsuki's mouth opened slightly, and Ritsuko slapped her forehead, but Misato wasn't fazed. "No. Just keep its Field down. Shinji, you're going to drop onto its core and smash it. Ritz, have Magi compute the plane's trajectory needed. We're only going to have one shot at this."
"Assuming control," Ritsuko said. The plane banked and headed away from the battlefield, to give it room to manoeuvre.
The three layers of AT Field appeared beneath the Angel, charged for a moment, then rotated to face directly at Chitose. There was no cover anywhere in the city.
"Oh dear," she said, "what should I –"
The Field hit her like a freight train square on her chest plate, blasting her off her feet and sending her tumbling halfway across the city, throwing up clouds of bitumen and car.
"Heavy abrasion across torso and right arm armour," Makoto reported. "No internal damage detected."
"Ow," said Chitose.
"This thing's toying with us," Misato realised, as it charged another attack and discharged it into the ground, throwing out more debris.
"Second armour plate cracked!" Makoto reported. "Thirteen minutes!"
Chitose rolled onto her front, braced, and pushed herself to her feet, clumsy from her low synch rate. A flattened lorry peeled off her cheek and clanged to the ground. The Angel ignored her, and charged another attack, punching a hole through the second armour plate.
"Shinji's on the final approach," Ritsuko reported.
"Chitose! Get back in there! Once more!"
Chitose rolled her jaw and walked back to the Angel, just as it charged up another attack. She waited until it loosed the energy downward again, and only then did she raise her own Field to tear into it.
Shinji's plane dived down to five hundred metres and dropped him. He twisted in midair to avoid impaling himself on a spine, grabbed it with one hand and drew his prog knife with the other, and slid down to the core. He slammed into the inner AT Field hard enough to knock himself out of his seat, the LCL cushioning him against the crushing G-force. Yellow ooze seeped out of the spine, sticking to that hand and one leg.
"Augh! I'm caught!"
"Ignore that! Take it down!"
He shoved his knife into the Field and sliced it open. He brought his free foot around to widen the tear laterally.
The three-layered Field appeared below him, humming and brightening. Shinji barely had enough time for his eyes to widen.
Chitose stepped forward, pushed her AT Field out to maximum, and pulled. The three-layered Field swung around to face her and discharged, smashing her into the ground hard enough to make her bounce.
"Unit-03 has gone silent!" Maya said.
"Shinji! You're clear!"
He tore the AT Field wide open and stabbed the core. The yellow goo spurted out of the nearest dozen spines, spattering all over his Eva. He grunted, snarled, and stabbed it again and twisted his knife. The core resonated, vibrated, and smashed to pieces. The spines fell apart and rained down across the city.