Summoning A Big Stick
Part IV
Ver 1.0
US Navy Third Fleet HQ,
Naval Base Point Loma,
San Diego, California
10:30 AM
It was way too early to be drinking. That did not mean there were no exceptions to be made.
After the battle (if it could be called that) at the PRC naval base at Longpo between the Abyssal Princess that had been accidentally summoned and the troops dying of radiation poisoning that had been guarding the perimeter of the base, everyone had been quiet for a few long moments. It was finally Admiral Greer who broke the silence.
"Ms. McDougal? You said you knew who the Abyssal Princess was? Could you tell us more?" Jim Greer regretted that he had to bring this up. It was necessary to get as much information as possible about their putative enemies. But it still did not prepare him for the look in the younger woman's blue eyes as she looked up.
His career in Intelligence had been mostly in analysis, where he would go over information that had been sent in by people in the field or by technical means. Sometimes he would send requests for certain information, and he would be careful not to ask now it was acquired. He did not have that luxury any now that he ran the Intelligence Directorate at CIA. He had to know where the information came from and how it was obtained, because decisions would be made in order to defend the United States and its allies. Because otherwise people would die. He had not been involved in obtaining information from hostile persons, there were specialists for that. But he had interacted with people who were not happy with him. Nikolay Gerasimov, the Chairman of the Soviet KGB that they blackmailed into defecting from his country, was one. And now Sarah McDougal with her cold blue eyes was another.
After staring at him for a long moment, Sarah looked away from Greer toward Admiral Painter before finally speaking. "I need a drink."
Painter blinked before replying. "If you are referring to alcohol, it's a little early for that, Ms. McDougal."
"Maybe so. But I just watched a monster wearing my dead friend's face turn a bunch of men into chunky salsa on live TV." All the Americans winced. "So I think you can bend the rules a little here." Sarah saw the hesitation on the Admiral's face and continued talking. "Or we can call it a day early and I can ask one of the friendly sailors walking around on this base where the nearest liquor store is."
Painter gave a sigh before glancing at Greer. The other man gave a slight nod and then he looked toward his chief of staff. "Charlie, go get my emergency supplies from my office, please." Captain Davenport nodded and stood up, an unhappy look on his face, and walked out of the room.
Sarah looked from Painter over to Motoko Kusanagi and her bodyguard, and while both did not look happy with her stayed silent. Glancing back to Greer she said, "While we wait, if you have any of those chants available I can go over them."
Greer nodded and reaching into his briefcase he pulled out a folder with red and black striping on it, laying it on the table and pushing it across to her. "You can look at this here, but you can't make copies or notes to take out of this room."
"Fair enough." Sarah opened the folder and after looking down at the papers within for a moment looked back at him. "I'll tell you about Sadako-chan once the good Captain comes back with the booze, I really do need a stiff drink for this. Don't worry, I'm not going to get drunk. I can't." As the remaining Americans officials looked at her with some puzzlement, Sarah gestured for Nyamo to move closer to her, and after picking up a red pencil and some torn off tablet pages the pair started going over the documents within, occasionally making notes on the tablet pages and murmuring softly with Nyamo, who was making notes as well.
A little less than fifteen minutes later Captain Davenport returned with a leather briefcase that he placed on the table. Opening the case, he pulled out a three quarter liter bottle of Woodford Reserve bourbon whiskey, some clear plastic cups, and a can of Coke and Dr. Pepper each. Jack Ryan came to his feet and assisted him in passing out the cups and filling them with soda as each person indicated.
Finally Admiral Painter picked up the bourbon and poured about half an ounce in each cup in front of him, Greer, Davenport, Kusanagi, and surprisingly the bodyguard. Nyamo just waved off the booze when the bottle came to her. Sarah actually got a full ounce after she raised an eyebrow at the Admiral, who after hesitating gave her some more bourbon. Considering there was about four ounces of soda in each cup it was a decent amount for a solid drink.
After Painter put down the bottle and picked up his cup, everyone else followed suit and looked back toward the admiral. The older man thought for a moment and raising his cup made a toast. "To the brave men of Hainan Island." Every person nodded and took a large sip from their cups. To everyone else's surprise Sarah did not flinch from drinking the strong liquor. But before they put down their cups the blonde raised her cup again. "To Sadako-chan, no matter where she is now may she be happy." After a pause everyone nodded again and took another drink, with Sarah draining her cup.
Once every person had sat down and Sarah had refilled her cup with only Dr. Pepper, she looked over at Greer. "You wanted to know about Sadako-chan?" The admiral nodded and Ryan picked up a pencil to take notes. The blonde gave him a moment to get ready by taking another sip of soda before speaking.
"Sadako Yamamura was born on Oshima Island off the coast of Honshu in Japan. After she graduated high school she moved to Tokyo to attend a mid-level college there. She loved to do traditional dancing and had an interest in Pacific Islander languages, so she took anthropology courses. When the JMSDF started looking for people in academia to help with translating the summoning chants her name came up. The Japanese reached out to her and after some testing and interviews offered her a job with the translator teams. She would have to put her college studies on hold, but the Japanese would ensure that her place would be held for her and they would arrange for a full ride scholarship and a healthy stipend while she worked for the government."
Sarah paused and sipped again as she looked around. The military officers were looking at her with some interest on their faces, Ryan was switching between looking at his notes and back at her, Kusanagi and the bodyguard had pretty much blank expressions on their faces, and Nyamo had a look of sorrow on hers.
"Part of Sadako's job was transcribing chants and prayers from pictures of cave and shrine walls and whatever stone engravings we could find. She was pretty damn good at it, better than some of the full researchers on staff, and that pissed them off. The fact that she was twenty years younger than them and female didn't help. They almost got into screaming matches with her, insulting her to her face, but what made things worse was that the transcriptions she produced proved to be much more accurate and effective. What caused them to blow their tops was when we got access to materials from the Kingdom of MolMol which was known to be correct and it matched up with her transcriptions with 95% accuracy."
Greer interrupted. "How did you get access to MolMol materials? They don't release any of their technology without scrubbing it clean, to the point where we can't replicate it or figure out how it was developed." The Kingdom of MolMol was an island nation between the Pacific and Indian Oceans that was at least than twenty years more technically advanced than current First World Nations. Throughout its history powerful nations such as England, France, Portugal and Japan tried to take it over for its natural resources and later its technology but their advanced weapons tech was enough to stop invasions in their tracks. It was said that the crystal blue ocean around the island was carpeted with the wreckages of destroyed ships and the bones of their crews. Even during the Great Pacific War they had managed to stay neutral, although this had more to do with the fact they had developed radar guided anti-aircraft and anti-ship artillery before every other nation to fend off attacks. This also applied to their merchant ships, which had 'anti-pirate' weaponry that could sink any warship up to a battleship. Any nation that wanted to trade with them had to allow the heavily armed (and booby-trapped) merchant ships to deliver the material to them rather than pick it up with their own ships. It was said that there were only three nations whose flag would cause pirates to run away screaming; the Russian Union, the People's Republic of China, and the Kingdom of MolMol with its blood red naval ensign with three green eyes in a triangular formation in its center.
Sarah gave a twisted grin. "It helps that we have an in within the high levels of the MolMol monarchy." Seeing that the Americans were confused she continued. "Princess Kaolla Su used to attend school in Tokyo and lived in the same boarding house as me and Nyamo. After her dad the King passed away and her sister became Queen, Su got bumped up to Crown Princess and had to go home for security reasons. She's a total mad scientist though, and she kept working on her research and we kept in touch. Once the Abyssal War kicked off MolMol was able to hold them off and defend their island, but they can't contribute too much tech to either Japan or the US, their security is insufficient to keep it from falling into Russian or Chinese hands. The one time they did with a piece of computer tech and programming for anti-aircraft gunnery to use against the Abyssals, it was in Russia and China the next month." The Americans shifted uncomfortably in their seats. That had not been one of their shining moments.
"Going back to Sadako, it turns out that there was a reason why she was so accurate in her transcriptions." Here Sarah smirked at the Americans. "I don't suppose you gentleman believe in psychics?" All the officers shook their heads, incredulity on their faces. "If it sounds dumb but it works, it ain't dumb. Sadako's family had a history of psychic abilities, her mom could apparently get glimpses of the future, not good enough to win the lottery, more like gut feelings that stuff was going to happen like storms and natural disasters. Sadako had something else, she didn't talk about it but we finally caught on." Sarah paused to drink some soda. "Against procedure Sadako would not wear the cotton or latex gloves we were required to while touching artifacts. She said it was because she could not write comfortably while wearing gloves, but then we noticed that she would always have to be touching the pictures or stone artifacts before writing. It turns out she was psychometric, she could read auras from objects." The incredulity on a certain officer's face was getting stronger. "It was when she took pictures of stone tablets and old scrolls and was able to trace the ideograms and hieroglyphics on the pictures while touching the original material that we figured it out. Once we talked it over with her only the members of our team knew about this skill of hers, but the other researcher teams were getting pissed that the JMSDF was depending more on her translations than on theirs."
Greer interrupted with a question. "Your team?"
"Teams are built around four people. A doctorate level researcher, a couple of research assistants and a transcriber. Our team was made up of Dr. Noriyasu Seta, Sadako, Nyamo and me," replied Sarah. She paused for a moment before asking a question of her own. "You ever had the pleasure of dealing with academics, especially the tenured ones?" The uniformed officers shook their heads, but Greer and Ryan nodded, barely concealing a shudder. "As much as academics are stuck up and arrogant in their field of study, in Japan it can get even worse, because then you throw seniority into the mix. No matter if they are proven otherwise, the senior guy, the sensei is always right. Only the JMSDF didn't have time for this bullshit, and the senior guys were going nuts. It didn't help that they started talking smack about our team, where they were saying that Seta only had us on his team as his harem." The Americans flushed in anger.
"They knew better than to say that in front of Seta himself or me, but they weren't so shy about saying it around Nyamo and Sadako." The Americans got even redder. "Only they didn't say anything about it, and when I walked in on a couple of assistants harassing Nyamo and Sadako the idiots then asked me some really rude questions. I… disabused them of their beliefs." Sarah rubbed the knuckles of her right hand. "JMSDF Security got involved and did a full blown investigation. Nyamo was actually doing the right thing, she was recording the idiots running their mouths when I walked in and busted their mouths for them. That one crooked toothed idiot should thank me, he'll be getting straight teeth implants once he can afford to pay for it." Sarah glanced down at her knuckles. "I had to go get antibiotic shots from cutting my hand on his teeth. The assistants were fired and their boss was left on the make-work team with only one assistant."
"How was it you weren't dismissed either for being violent?" Davenport asked.
"What the idiots didn't know until that point was that Seta was my adoptive father, and that Nyamo had been his ward while she was underage. So by saying that Seta had us there as his harem…" Sarah trailed off as the Americans shuddered. "We did not bring it up except with our overall bosses because we didn't want to be accused of nepotism. So of course the stupid assholes jumped to the next worse conclusion." She sighed. "Point being, Sadako was pretty shy and withdrawn even for a Japanese girl but once she got used to my loud American butt and Miss Chatterbox over there," Sarah hooked a thumb at Nyamo, "we got to be pretty good friends. We would go out on lunch break together, and that is when shit happened."
Everyone watched as Sarah stood and walked over toward the bottle of bourbon next to Painter and Davenport. Pouring a solid slug of alcohol into her cup, she then poured the rest of the can of Dr. Pepper into the cup as well before walking back to her seat and taking a deep drink, shuddering slightly as the fiery liquid went down.
"One of the mistakes we made back then is that we were working out of civilian facilities. It made a lot more sense than dragging all the reference materials from several universities to a military base. But once certain countries were able to get some names from the project, and track down where they were working…" Sarah sipped from her cup, her mind flashing back to that day.
Two panel vans screeched to a halt on the street beside her and Nyamo and Sadako, and a half dozen men in medical masks, black hoodies and sweat pants poured out and rushed them, blocking them in and not giving them space to run. Nyamo immediately pulled out the knives she carried concealed under her shirtsleeves and started slashing like crazy, blood flying as she sliced arms and hands reaching for her. Sarah popped the seals tattooed in henna on her forearms and hands, blowing open the sleeves on her arms and manifested ki wind blades 8 inches long from the back of her wrists and did the same, trying to keep the stun guns in the men's hands away from her. And in their panicked fighting they did not realize what happened to their third member of their group until one of the vans sped off with tires squealing. At that point the gloves came off.
"Weapons free! Don't let them get away!" screamed Sarah. The abductors tried to fall back to their van but they could not afford to let them get away or they would never be able to track their compatriots. The two girls started to kick and slash at the men's legs, crippling two of them before the others got to the van and it took off as well.
"Call Seta and Keitaro, tell them Sadako has been grabbed!" As Nyamo pulled out her phone and hit a speed dial button Sarah moved to the one man that was trying to crawl away and kicked him hard in the side, causing him to yelp and curl up, not moving anymore. Looking over at the other downed abductor, the blonde could see that he was bleeding heavily from a leg wound, to the point it could be deadly if not treated.
"Nyamo, give me a knife!" Sarah kicked the other man over onto his stomach, and taking the knife her friend handed her picked up Sadako's purse from the ground and cut off the leather shoulder strap. Forming it into a loop with a slide knot at the end, she slid it up his leg and past his wound, cinching it between the wound and his hip. Taking a stick from the ground she started to tighten it on the leg until the heavy bleeding lessened and then almost stopped, then she tied off the stick into position. Looking around she saw the first abductor was trying to crawl away again, so Sarah picked up one of the stun guns laying on the ground, bent over and pressed the electrodes to his bare neck and pushed the trigger button. The man flopped like a fish for a few moments before collapsing unconscious.
"Sarah, Keitaro-sama says police on their way, to put all weapons down, show ID from neck and hands up and empty and say, 'We work for military, there was kidnap attempt, officers on their way, we talk only to them.'" Nyamo suited her actions to her words, putting down her remaining knife, safely away from the men on the ground. "Gave description of vans to Keitaro-sama, he calling it in to police and military." As the islander girl spoke, police sirens began to be heard, first a couple, then a dozen, then what sounded like the entire police force began to echo, like the city was screaming.
"How was it that you were armed? I thought Japan had strict weapon laws." Ryan's question brought Sarah out of the trance she had fallen into, reliving the attack in her mind as she was describing it.
"Nyamo grew up by herself in the Western Pacific since she was about twelve years old and lost her last family member." Everyone's eyes swiveled to the islander girl, who blushed slightly. "She's trained in Filipino Escrima, probably the best knife fighter I know, so she always carries something to use in a pinch." Sarah paused and then blink-blinked at Ryan. "And I'm an American. Weapons are part of my religion." Painter and Greer almost choked holding back a laugh, although Davenport was not amused and Ryan just looked confused.
"Anyway, things were a real mess for a while, there were dead and injured men on the ground and two foreigner girls covered in blood on the scene. They almost hauled us off in handcuffs but we kept shouting that we worked for the military and they were on their way and that one of us had gotten grabbed. That confused them long enough for the JSDF to arrive." If there was one thing that would throw confused and pissed cops off balance it was two military Blackhawk helicopters dropping into a hover over a street intersection and a counter-terrorism team rappelling down in full battle rattle. When a certain purple haired female officer started showing her credentials and loudly announced that her agency would take lead on the case with the CT troopers backing her up, no one opposed her. The female officer did a quick and dirty questioning about what happened during the attack, made some short phone calls to pass the info, and then hustled the pair off in an unmarked SUV.
Sarah continued with her story. "There wasn't much left involving us after that. We were taken to a JSDF base hospital and checked out to make sure we weren't hurt. Counter-terror and security guys interviewed us again for more info, and then we were sat on for two days as the police and military tore Tokyo apart trying to find Sadako. They finally found her, but it was too late. In the media it was reported that Sadako Yamamura died of injuries sustained while being kidnapped by a human trafficker ring." The blonde made side-eyes toward the two Japanese adults, who still had emotionless looks on their faces. "I'm not officially cleared to know what really happened, but I can guess. Ever since then all our work takes place in military bases and every time we leave the bases we have armed security with us." Sarah looked down at her cup before raising and emptying it. "That's as much as I can tell you about Sadako and her kidnapping. As to why that Abyssal Princess was wearing Sadako's face, I don't know for certain, but I can guess." The looks on the Japanese cracked a little even as the curiosity increased on the Americans.
"This is my personal opinion, not my team's, not the JMSDF, not the Japanese government, mine alone." Sarah looked all the Americans in the eyes and they all nodded, some more hesitantly than the other. "There is a legend that when a person dies a crow will guide their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes something so bad happens when they die they cannot rest, and the crow will lead the soul back to the land of the living to put the wrong things right." Sarah saw the looks of disbelief on the Americans faces and gave a slight smile. "Remember, the paranormal exists, that's why this war is going on. Sadako had paranormal abilities, that is why she was so good at her job. And if the abductors were able to force information out of her before she died and they passed it on to the Chinese who used it for a summon, what would be more vengeful than coming back as the enemy and causing a major misfire in a key naval base?" The Americans expression was more thoughtful now. "One more thing. There are a lot of crows in the Metro Tokyo area, and I think I might have seen a few in that satellite video. Make of that what you will." Sarah glanced at her empty cup and then stood up. "If you have any more questions you're going to have to ask Kusanagi-san. Nyamo and I have to go to the ladies room, and Shadow-san has to walk us there." She nodded toward her silent bodyguard, who followed the two younger women out of the room, leaving the American officials staring at the sole Japanese left in the room.
"Is there anything else you can tell us about Ms. Sadako's abduction, Ms. Kusanagi?" Greer's question made the emotionless expression on the purple haired woman's twitch, before finally she sighed. Picking up her soda cup she took a sip before putting it down again.
"What I am about to tell you is beyond Sarah-san and Nyamo-san's clearance level, so please don't repeat what you are about to hear to them." She watched as all the men nodded agreement.
"When JMSDF was notified that Sadako-san was kidnapped, they declared a National Security Incident in the Metro Tokyo area. Since she had access to the equivalent of Special Access Program intelligence," Kusanagi saw the men nod in understanding; SAP material was classified higher than Top Secret and required individual clearance, "from the ship girl summoning project, we could not afford to let that intelligence fall into hostile hands. All vehicle entry and exit into Tokyo was heavily barred and subject to inspection and the airspace above the metro area was locked down. Counter-Intelligence and Counter-Terror accessed the video camera system where the abduction took place and managed to trace the vans to a parking garage, where they were emptied and set on fire." The Americans winced. "They tried to split up in separate vehicles, but with the use of AI video search programs we followed the vehicles that left the parking garage and traced them to a couple of apparent safe houses in Saitama and Chiba. We were able to trace Sadako-san to the location in Chiba, and that is where politics got in the way." The expression on Kusanagi's face became that of anger.
"The Ministry of Defense and the JMSDF wanted to have control of the incident since it involved a military employee and intelligence. The Ministry of Justice wanted control because it was kidnapping and possible terrorism. Certain liberal elements of the government were interfering with both because we were able to identify the abductors that were captured and their compatriots." Motoko paused for a moment and the gazes of the men opposite her sharpened. "They were members of an offshoot of Chongryon, one of the organizations made up of ethnic Koreans and their descendents who emigrated to and lived in Japan. Chongryon was best known for being closely linked to North Korea and its government, at least until its collapse and take over by the PRC."
The American officials nodded in understanding. Struggling even in the best of times, North Korea's economy got worse after the collapse of the Soviet Union after the end of the Cold War and a four year famine in the 1990s. The country was barely able to subsist on starvation levels for most of the population for two decades after that, with the majority of what food and foreign imports they received going to the military and the privileged elite. Then the Abyssal War happened.
The People's Republic of China had been supporting North Korea for the purposes of keeping a buffer zone between their country and South Korea and Japan and to split the attentions of the Western militaries in the Pacific. But once the Abyssals targeted all shipping in the Pacific, which the PRC was heavily dependent on, they cut their support to North Korea. The situation, along with another one-two punch of floods and droughts which resulted in most of the population of the North eating grass to supplement the handful of rice that was their daily ration and even rumors of infanticide and cannibalism, drove the totalitarian regime to the edge of the abyss, no pun intended.
Either as a way to get desperately needed food and supplies from their southern neighbor or just sheer delusional fanaticism, the DPRK started getting ready to invade South Korea, up to and including putting their nuclear weapons on ready alert to destroy their enemies. But just as the supreme leader was about to announce their invasion on a live TV broadcast, one of his bodyguards drew his pistol and shot him in the head, then himself. The broadcast immediately cut off, but for a week a civil war raged in North Korea, which was made worse when the PRC invaded across the Yalu River and dropped airborne brigades on the capital of Pyongyang and various nuclear weapon facilities. Some of the DPRK units were lead by Chinese agents, and by the end of the second week the war was over. The PRC purged the North Korean government of almost all officials and put their own people in command, making the formerly isolated country a 'socialist protectorate' of China. Which meant that all overseas assets of the former country were under Chinese command.
"Given the urgency of the situation, it was decided that non-lethal forced interrogation of the arrested abductors was appropriate," stated Motoko evenly. The American internally cringed; that was a very polite way of saying that torturing the prisoners was authorized, so long as the abuse did not kill them outright. "The prisoners were native Korean-Japanese so they did not have counter-interrogation training and we were able to get actionable intelligence fairly quickly. Once we realized that they were members of Chongryon and that they were being directed by PRC intelligence officers, we were able to direct our investigation to people and locations linked to Chongryon. And that is where we hit the wall. We found the safe houses, cut all phone and internet service, including cellular, and were waiting for the decision to be made as to who was going to either negotiate with the kidnappers or storm their location. We had been on site for four hours," more cringing on the part of the Americans – that was way too long, "when the choice was made for us."
"Why is this taking so long, Kusanagi-san?" The soft question from behind her almost made Motoko jump up in the air, a very bad thing to do while wearing full tactical gear and weapons. It still made her twitch rather visibly though.
Turning around, she saw a brown haired man dressed in a black business suit with tie and a white shirt, wearing dark Rayban Wayfarer sunglasses even though it was night time, a large briefcase held in his left hand. The big question was not why someone in civilian garb was in a cordoned off area – there were many plainclothes officers moving about – but why this particular man was.
"Akira-san. How were you able to pass the cordon?" Motoko was trying hard to not let herself be seen breathing heavily from being startled.
"If you look and act like you belong somewhere doing something important, people will not interfere with you." Looking closer, Motoko could see a laminated ID card with a photo and a state seal clipped to Akira's coat lapel, only it was upside down so no one would read it at a glance but it looked official. Focusing on the card intently, she was finally able to see it was his security contractor ID card, not enough to make his way through a security line.
"Again, why has nothing been done? I know that the police have blockaded this area for over four hours and that there has been no attempt to contact the people inside or enter the building." Akira was looking at the small group of operatives from Public Safety 9 that was operating various eavesdropping equipment pointed at the apartment that they believed the abductors were kidding in. Even now Ishikawa and Pazu were operating the laser and microwave mikes while Batou and Togusa were acting as security; all of the men were also wearing tactical clothes, armor and gear similar to Motoko.
"We are waiting for word to come down from the command level as to what is to be done next." That was an honest enough statement from Motoko, even if it was not a complete one.
"I know for a fact that JSDF G2 would have already ordered either contact or entry, so who is delaying them?"Akira was referring to the military's Intelligence branch.
Motoko hesitated. While Akira was not an official member of the government or it's agencies, he did have access to high level officials who would pass information as requested, whether they wanted to or not. Not the least of which was that she knew that he had her boss' phone number on speed dial.
"Since it had become known that Chongryon and Chinese intelligence agents are involved, the liberal elements of the Cabinet have not wanted to provoke the PRC. So they are insisting on doing things slowly." Motoko watched as Akira stared at her before blinking slowly.
"You have cut off all comms, correct?" Akira glanced over at the two techs manning the electronics.
"Landline and cellular phone service and internet service has been cut, as well as building electrical power. It's as secure as we can make it." Motoko glanced over at the two men as well, and noticed what Akira had as well; the two techs had narrowed eyes and frowns on their faces.
"What about satellite signals? Regular radio signals?"Akira kept his eyes on the techs as he spoke.
"Those are being monitored back at PSIA HQ." At those words Akira's eyes snapped toward her.
"By the same people that are delaying contact with the abductors? That have the techs under their orders?"
As Akira's words sunk in Motoko's face became pale. She whirled around and started to bark orders. "Check for satellite and shortwave signals now! I don't care if HQ is doing it, double check!"
As the techs started to fiddle with their controls Akira stepped closer to the electronics. After a moment he began to stare at the one tech who was not moving, who apparently was concentrating on the sounds coming through the headphones he was wearing, a massive scowl on his face. Suddenly Akira's hand shot out and snatched the headphones from the tech and put it to his head. He had only had the earpiece to his ear for a few moments and before anyone could protest a sudden blast of cold rolled over the group, a loud crackle of static coming from all the comms gear before it suddenly stopped. Throwing the headset back at the startled tech Akira spun around to glare at Motoko, who was barely able to not stumble backwards.
"That girl is being tortured in there." Akira's voice had dropped into a growl, causing them all to shiver. "Has your headquarters been told this?"
Motoko hesitated for a moment before answering. "Yes. They told us to stand by."
Akira's voice was getting colder. "How long has it been since then?"
Motoko could feel cold sweat starting to roll down her back under her armor. "About two hours now."
The cold air intensified for a moment before it abruptly faded away. This happened as Akira's face became horrifyingly blank. He stared at her for a moment longer before he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a mobile phone. "Stand by to receive new orders, Inspector."
As Motoko inwardly cringed at the referral to her old police cover rank, Akira scrolled though the contracts on his phone before selecting one and hitting the go button. After a moment he began to speak. "This is Hiroyuki Akira, ID code LKWS19A. Confirm status." After a fifteen second pause he spoke again. "I need to speak to her immediately regarding the current Code Black." Even as everyone flinched back at his words, the other tech spoke up.
"Major, I'm detecting a video stream being transmitted by satellite signal. I can only pick up the audio, but it matches what we are hearing on the microwave mikes." As everyone turned to stare at him the tech kept speaking. "I can't jam the signal with the equipment at hand, only headquarters can."
All eyes switched back to Akira as he spoke again into the phone. "This is Akira, I am on site at the Code Black at Chiba. We have proof that the abductors are torturing the victim who has knowledge of high level military intelligence and broadcasting the intel from her to their commanders via satellite signal. This has been known by PSIA for at least two hours now. The signal is not being jammed, probably deliberately." Looks of horror were now on everyone's faces.
"It appears there are compromised elements in both the intelligence and command sections and neither the police or military will be able to act fast enough to stop this." Another pause. "We have gone too far to resolve this conventionally. As Arashikagi I am hereby declaring this an Extremis event." Motoko and Batou both went rigid at Akira's words. An Extremis event was something that caused a grave immediate danger to the nation.
The man in the suit stood listening to the phone for a few more moments. "I can resolve this on my own, I don't need assistance." Another pause. "If you insist, but I get to pick them myself, and you have to give their commander the go-ahead for them to assist me and for me to have tactical command. His name is Colonel Daisuke Aramaki, head of Public Safety Section Nine." Another pause. "I will do the most that I can to keep this quiet, but it may no longer be possible." One last pause. "Thank you for your understanding." Akira then pulled the phone away from his ear and pushing the end call button, looking up to see the expressions of shock and horror on the operatives faces. "Inspector, you will be receiving a call from your boss shortly."
"Major, my rank is Major." Motoko was still trying to process the fact that the man in front of her had apparently being talking to the Prime Minister of Japan and giving her orders.
"As you say, Major." Akira had barely dropped his phone into his coat pocket when another mobile phone vibrated, this one in one of Motoko's vest pockets. As she pulled it out and answered it, Akira put his briefcase on top of the portable table they were all standing next to and opened it. Surprising everyone, the interior did not contain the expected papers but instead tactical gear.
While Motoko was giving yes and no answers to her caller, Akira put on the black nylon gun belt over his regular trouser belt but under his suit coat. The operatives could see on the belt there were pistol and rifle magazine pouches, a sheathed knife, a pouch with a flashlight in it, and a compact medical pack on the back. He picked up a Glock 19 pistol with a red dot sight and attached a compact suppressor to the muzzle before chambering a round and holstering the pistol on his side. Adjusting his coat above the gun belt his waist looked a little lumpy but everything was out of sight.
"Akira-san, Colonel Aramaki wants to speak with you." Motoko pulled the phone away from her ear and held it out to him. He placed it to his ear and spoke after a moment.
"Colonel, I'm sorry it came to this." Akira listened to his response before speaking again. "I don't need a full team for this, the less members who accompany me the better, otherwise we will be getting in each other's way." A pause. "I don't suppose just one member is enough." Pause again. "Three members are acceptable, but they have to volunteer and they will under my tactical command." Another pause. "As you say, Colonel. The members of the team who stay behind will send word to you when we go in. One more thing, this cannot be told to any of the other agencies, not the military, not the police, and certainly not the politicians and bureaucrats, we suspect there are compromised personnel in the chain of command." A pause again. "I will leave the investigation of those personnel to you, that is not my specialty." One final pause, which lasted longer and made Akira's lips thin noticeably. "It is too late for that now Colonel, but I understand the Prime Minister's orders. I will call you once the operation is complete. Here is Major Kusanagi."
Pulling the phone away from his ear, Akira handed the phone back to Motoko, who after a few more yes and nos ended the call and put the phone back in its pouch. "Major, Colonel Aramaki told you that some of your team is to go with me and I have tactical command?" Motoko nodded. "I need three volunteers." Almost in unison all the operators raised their hands.
Akira's lips twitched in amusement. "Lets try this again. Major, I presume you are one of the volunteers." Motoko nodded again. "I need at least one infiltration specialist and probably a close combat specialist."
Motoko turned to look at her men and spoke two names. "Pazu, Batou." She turned back to Akira. "Batou is my best chi level close combat fighter, and Pazu is my breaking and entering specialist. He also spent his early years infiltrating Yakuza gangs."
After eyeing the taller former JGSDF Ranger, he turned to look at the slighter man, who despite his tactical gear wore his dark brown hair slicked back in the same manner as Yakuza gangsters. "I'm not going to ask stupid questions, but I am going to ask something I need the answer to. Do both of you have confirmed kills?" Almost everyone recoiled slightly at Akira's question; it was one of the things real combat operatives never asked.
"Yeah, I do." Pazu was one of the men that did not recoil, and he answered succinctly. Batou frowned deeply and nodded.
"More than once? Multiple occurrences?" was Akira's next question, which made both Motoko and Batou frown deeper. The two men nodded. "How close?
"Did a couple with a carry knife on different occasions, and I've been on raids where we shot suspects and terrorists dead." Pazu replied flatly. They all turned toward Batou, who evenly stated, "Shot multiple suspects dead on raids, been in deadly hand to hand fights but knocked them out."
"Good, the reason I ask is because I don't want to take combat virgins on this assault, and that is because of our orders." Everyone blinked at Akira, who then continued talking. "The Prime Minister has ordered that Sadako Yamamura
is to be either rescued or denied to the enemy at all costs." He paused as that statement sunk in; Sadako was to be killed if she could not be rescued. "Last thing I want is for someone to freeze from their first kill in the middle of this op. If you have a problem with those orders or with me being in tactical command, say so now." No response from the three operatives. "Well then, Pazu-san and I will be on point, the Major will be running comms and Batou-san will watch our backs."
Everyone watched as Akira took two more items from his opened attaché case; an AK-74U Krinkov folding stock submachine gun with red dot sight and an ammo magazine, which he inserted into the gun and loaded a round to make it ready to fire before setting the safety and slinging it behind his back. "Major, who is in charge of your group here while you are away?" Motoko nodded toward a blonde haired man who stepped forward. "If anyone asks the Major and her men left to do a reconnoiter. Are any of you chi sensitive?" Two of the men raised their hands. "If you feel five chi pulses in rapid succession, prepare for an EMP pulse and secure your electronics." Everyone's eyes widened. "Remember, don't tell anyone what we are doing, on penalty of violation of the Official Secrets Act.
As Akira turned to start walking Motoko spoke up. "Don't you have any armor you wear, Akira-san?" The man was only wearing his gun belt and weapons with his black business suit, with no ballistic armor.
Akira turned back slightly to look at her. "I don't need armor, the trick is to move fast enough to not be there when the bullets start flying." He almost smiled at the look on their faces. "Come on, follow me." He turned forward again and started walking.
Motoko spoke again. "Akira-san, that is not the building with the abductors." In fact, the man in the suit was walking toward an apartment building beside the structure in question.
"The best way to raid a building is from the top down, and helicopters are too noisy. So we'll approach in a manner they are not expecting." Akira kept walking and the trio of operators hurried to catch up.
Motoko paused as she drank from her soda cup again. She was not about to go into detail about what happened in the raid, as that went into military methods and tactics, which was normally deemed highly classified by Counter-Terror units. But also some of it was practically unbelievable. Such as Akira grabbing each operative by their belt and vest collar and hurling them across a ten meter gap from the roof of the adjacent building to the target building, and then jumping across himself. The four of them ghosting along the darkened hallways and stairwells down to the building, the operatives using night-vision goggles to see, but Akira merely taking off his sunglasses to see in near total darkness. Motoko sending a message to her team outside to cause a distraction, which they did by setting off a timed improvised explosive device in a garbage dumpster. This caused the surrounding police and military officials to run around like a kicked-over anthill, drawing the kidnappers' attention. Standing first in the assault line, Akira did five rapid chi pings, waited five seconds and fired off a massive chi ping that fried all active electronics, threw a flashbang grenade through the door he had just kicked open and the four operatives stormed the room.
Breaching rooms was something that all CT teams in general practiced, including PS9. But what they did under Akira's orders deviated from that. Rather than each breacher immediately turning along the walls upon entry, only Pazu and Batou went along the left and right walls with Motoko covering the rear. Akira went straight into the middle of the room, making him the immediate priority target of the hostiles while not wearing any armor. This would normally be considered suicidal, but if Motoko had not seen what happened next, she would not have believed it.
Pazu and Akira had each killed a patrolling sentry each in the hallways, Pazu with a knife and Akira by breaking the sentry's neck with his bare hands. But when Akira flashed into the final room it was not with his Krinkov submachine gun at the ready, but with his red dot equipped Glock 19 pistol. He fired so fast it sounded like an automatic weapon, ten shots fired in pairs, and by the time Motoko had entered the room all hostiles were down and Pazu and Batou had not fired at all. Akira was next to the strapped down figure on a table with a flashlight on looking at the severe beating and electrical injuries sustained. And that is when the most incredible thing happened.
Batou had stepped next to the bound girl and checked her vitals before announcing there was no breathing or heart beat. At that point Akira positioned his hand above the girl's chest and with the palm facing up a blue spinning sphere of energy formed above it. Flipping his hand over Akira pushed the blue sphere into Sadako's chest and after a few moments checked for vitals again and not finding any. He did the sphere two more times before he finally stopped, acknowledging the obvious – Sadako Yamamura was dead.
Shoulders slumped, Akira walked over to the window and peered outside, seeing that the police and military below were still running around erratically. Stepping back he turned to look at Motoko, who was now looking down at the dead girl. "Major, please call Colonel Aramaki and update him on our status," Akira requested softly.
Motoko pulled out her phone and surprisingly it charged up like normal; even hardened tech was not always proof against EMP at close range. Pressing a certain speed dial number, she put it to her ear and after hearing her superior's voice began to speak. "Colonel, this is Major Kusanagi, the location is secure and all hostiles are down and out." Every kidnapper was laying on the floor with two bullet holes in the front of their heads and the backs of their skulls blown out along with their brain matter. "Yamamura-san is dead, she passed away from her injuries. There was nothing we could do." Motoko listened for a few more moments. "We'll stand by here for now, we can't walk out with all the police outside acting unpredictably. Once things have calmed down, please send EOD and intel teams. Also, please call the police commanders and tell them to stand down and just maintain the perimeter cordon. They will take it better from you than from me." Motoko had a bad feeling that the police officials would throw a massive fit about their being bypassed to execute a raid behind their backs. "Yes sir, thank you." She ended the call and tucked the phone away while looking at Akira.
For the first time in a long while the younger man looked much older than his actual age. She watched as he reached into his coat and pulled out his sunglasses and putting them on before turning back to the dead girl. After sliding his hand down over her eyes to make sure they were closed, he softly clapped his hands together and began to whisper under his breath. It took a few moments for Motoko to make out what he was saying but in the end the three operators watched as the scariest man in the room prayed for the soul of the dead girl they had been too late to save.
Motoko and the military officers looked up at the sound of a knock at the conference room door. The Japanese woman had just finished speaking and the Americans had been contemplating what she had told them. She had not revealed that the bodyguard that had been in the room with them had been on the raid to rescue Sadako, and she had certainly not told them that he had used chi and ki techniques.
After Painter gave permission to enter, the door opened and Sarah McDougal peered around the door frame. "You guys done talking about stuff I am not supposed to know about?" the blonde girl asked.
"Yes, you all can come back in Ms. McDougal," Admiral Painter replied. They watched as the two young women and their bodyguard walked back into the room and took their seats.
"Now that we got the morbid stuff out of the way, there is something I need to ask you guys about." Sarah turned and looked directly at Admiral Greer. "I went through the chants you gave me, although they don't use the same wording and chants as the Japanese ones, they have the same structure and method so I can see how they were able to work. But I did not see the one chant that is probably the most important one."
"Which one would that be, Ms. McDougal?" Greer was trying to maintain a poker face as he spoke, and only Painter was seeing that he was not happy about where this conversation was going.
"The Enterprise chant. We know the main reasons why things went wrong, but unless I see the actual written out chant you were using, I can't tell you what can be done to fix it," explained Sarah. "Your guys were singing in a language that they didn't speak or understand, I need to see if things can be improved if we have trained or native speakers doing the chant.
Painter turned to glance at Greer, who did not appear happy. The two admirals silently looked at each other for a long moment before Painter gave a nod. Greer looked resigned but nodded in return. Reaching into his briefcase, he removed another folder, only this one had red and silver striping on the edges.
"Ms. McDougal, this is what is known as NOFORN intel. That means we do not give access to it to foreign personnel, even those of allied nations. We are making an exception today because this matter is so important." Greer placed it on the table in front of him. Sarah was looking at the folder with some curiosity before she glanced back up at him. "Please don't talk about this material with anyone currently not in this room."
"You know there is one person I would probably will have to talk about this with that's not here right now, my dad Dr. Seta. Plus those two over there probably have to talk about it with their bosses if this is what I think it is." Sarah tilted her head slightly toward Motoko and the bodyguard.
Greer gave a slight sigh before speaking again. "We are aware of that, so let's just modify things a bit. Please don't talk about this with people who don't have a need to know and that you have not told us about beforehand."
"Fair enough." Sarah watched as Greer slid the folder across the table toward her. Reaching out and pulling the folder toward her, the blonde girl spun it around and opened it before starting to read. She started to reach out for a pencil and paper again before her hand stilled and lowered to the table as her eyes moved faster across the page. Flipping over the page she kept reading silently.
Greer for some reason was looking slightly nervous now, and Painter looked concerned as well. Captain Davenport looked curious as was Ryan. But it was the Japanese delegation that was more uneasy, with both Nyamo and the bodyguard staring at Sarah intently, especially as her face began to flush red.
"That asshole." Everyone twitched slightly as Sarah spoke, never mind that it was a vulgarity, more concerned with the look of anger building on her face. "That FUCKING asshole!" she almost shouted before shoving the folder away from her and pushed her chair back from the table, her complexion almost brick red, and even more concerning, her eyes practically glowing blue. She slammed her hands onto the top of the table, making the heavy wood jump. "That ARROGANT FUCKING ASSHOLE!" Sarah jumped to her feet and started to pace around angrily.
"Sarah, what is it, what is wrong?" Nyamo was the first to speak, coming to her feet as well and approaching the angry girl but stopping short.
"Take a look at that shit, see if you recognize it." Sarah jerked her hand toward the folder on the table. "You too, Akira-san."
As the islander girl and the bodyguard approached the folder Greer opened his mouth to protest, but Sarah shot him such a chilling look that he stayed quiet. The pair looked at the papers in the folder and after a few moments Nyamo had a grave look on her face, and the bodyguard's expression had gone horrifyingly blank.
"Sarah, it looks like Goro's work." Nyamo stated quietly. Akira nodded silently in agreement.
Sarah paced for a few more moments before she spun around and glared at Admiral Greer. "How much did you pay for it?"
"I beg your pardon?" Greer was maintaining a calm demeanor.
"That shit! The fucked up chant that nearly blew God knows how many people to Kingdom Come! I recognize the translation; we were damn near screaming at each other about it when it was submitted back in Japan. That is a translation from one of our teams, and I recognize which one. There is only one way for you to get your hands on it, someone had to sell it to you!" Sarah was practically panting as she shouted. Motoko's eyes were going wide as she understood what Sarah was implying.
"We don't talk about sources and methodology in the intelligence business, Ms. McDougal." Greer's face and voice had gone flat at this point.
"You don't have to tell me, I've pretty much figured it out by this point." Sarah spun and walked around for a few moments before turning back to him. "Well, I think you got more than your money's worth, Admiral, and you're pretty damn lucky as it is."
"Why are you saying we were lucky?" It was Captain Davenport who spoke up.
"There was a reason why the teams were fighting about this translation when it was submitted. After review by all of the translator teams most agreed that it was not worth the risk. We never attempted to use it for a summons, and the lead blew his top." Sarah walked back to the folder and flipped it open to read again before closing it. "What's worse is that it looks like he doubled down, and deliberately."
"Doubled down?" Ryan was the one to ask now.
"There are certain elements that have to be in a certain order in a chant. If these are missing or worse yet in the wrong order, it won't just result in a dud or fizzle. And they way they are structured in this chant it can only be done on purpose." Sarah stood straight and looked at Greer in the eyes.
"It is my opinion that this chant was deliberately sabotaged. Considering the chant was almost certainly going to be done at a US naval base and it involved nuclear weapons and reactors or a large scale ship girl being summoned, it should have resulted in a major misfire, at the same level as Longpo or worse."