The next morning SunTzu and Rei were awoken by SunTzu's ringing phone.
It was Haruka on the other line.
"Get your arse out of bed Princess in the Tower. Time for some morning PT. You have thirty minutes. And as the Senior of us, this is an order." She hung up with a smooching sound and he sighed loud and long while Rei had to laugh.
"I wanted to meet up with the girls for Yoga anyway. You can join also if you want."
Hm, Yoga with a bunch of Senshi or Military Morning Exercises with a maximum of two of them. His Body was still aching from Bestine.
"Oh, I'll go training with Haruka. Pilots need to stick together."
The couple got ready and left, for some reason SunTzu persisted to walk behind his girlfriend. Might have been the Yoga-Pants.
SunTzu arrived at the Flight Center well in time but Haruka was already waiting. SunTzu expected Michiru coming along but instead Hotaru was there, sitting in Armed Forces Training clothes as the others, on the hood of a Humvee parked in front of the building.
"Michiru preferred going to Yoga with the others. But Hotaru joined in."
Haruka stretched her arms.
"Let's go defame some grunts."
The trio started their morning run and soon mixed up with various ground dwellers and other personnel running around the base. They even passed Artemis and Captain Santos. Artemis looked a bit better than last night.
Following a long morning run, which left them sweating and gasping, even Hotaru, they put in some other exercises like Push-Ups, Planks and Pull-Ups.
After that and a shower they met again in font of the Flight Center and took a Humvee for the palace. Time for breakfast.
Haruka insisted on driving, of course. They took a detour because Madame Race Driver wanted to see how much she could get out of the vehicle. At least the girls had fun. For SunTzu it was just another near death experience because Haruka drove even more reckless than Mamoru.
"You're driving on the goddamn wrong side you crazy bitch!"
"Shut up, I know what I'm doing. I'm a race driver champion!"
"In what? Destruction Derby?! Watch out that HEMTT coming in!"
Haruka didn't swerve the large truck she completely took off the road, one of roads surrounding the base and went off the road.
After going offroad and not being imperiled by traffic even SunTzu started to enjoy the wild ride in the nature and Haruka passed some platoons of troopers on their way to training. The soldiers greeted the off road racing Humvee enthusiastically with yelling and cheering as they rushed across a path that crossed the training path.
Somewhere between the shooting range and an obstacle course for the infantry she shot back on the street.
The three had a wide grin in their faces when they finally stopped at the palace.
"Watch your uniforms when you get out, the car could be a bit muddy."
SunTzu felt better, that little joyride pushed his endorphin level.
As they got out carefully to not mess up their uniforms, they noticed a pair of MPs looking suspiciously over to their Humvee. Haruka didn't gave over the car to the motor pool, they rather just left.
"I guess we take another entrance. And we move out on the double." Haruka stated and the trio walked away with fast steps and without taking a look back to the MPs.
They went in over the main entrance and headed for the dining hall, taking a look around once in a while if any MPs were approaching them.
As they entered they saw that a big table in the middle of the hall was filled with the rest of the Senshi.
The Inner Senshi, including Usagi, were all sitting together on one side while Chibiusa, Setsuna and Michiru were sitting on the other side.
They walked over to the table and as Haruka was standing behind Michiru and looking over the table she turned her head back to SunTzu. The women were all engaged in chatter.
"Look Mate, the Spice Girls reunited again."
The five heads of the Inner Senshi turned up to her, while Michiru punched her on the shoulder.
"Ah, if that isn't our tomboy pilot bedeviling the next generation of Senshi and the guy supposed to look after all of us." Makoto threw at Haruka as answer.
Haruka sat down with an evil grin and kissed Michiru. SunTzu and Hotaru sat down too, next to Setsuna, SunTzu sitting opposite to Rei.
"Get a room!" Rei commented.
"Awww, are you jealous that your boyfriend didn't greet you accordingly?"
Rei and SunTzu looked at each other.
He was happy to see that Rei could smile again, the time with the other Senshi seemed to have cheered her up immensely.
"I'm sure we can do that better than they can." Rei said to SunTzu, a challenge in her voice.
The two lovers both got up and leaned over the table, closing their heads in and finally sharing a long french kiss with him taking her head into his hands. The Inner Senshi were making Whoo-Sounds and cheered.
"Does anyone happen to remember that you guys represent a monarchy?" Mamoru came up to the table and sat down. The couple stopped kissing immediately and sat down blushing.
"Mamo-Chan!" Both Usagis said at the same time. He sat down between Usagi and Makoto and gave his Queen a kiss on the cheek. The young King came from taking a swim in the pool of the palace and immediately noticed the table with the Senshi on it's volume alone.
The King didn't sit for a full minute when Luna, Artemis and Diana appeared at the table too. The Guardians were all united again.
After breakfast, which was loud, funny and very much appreciated for the mood of the veterans of Bestine IV they all went their seperate ways.
Mina would drop Rei off at the Shrine and Ami would take SunTzu home after a briefing. Rei told him that night that she wanted to take some time to pray after Bestine.
Ami was taking off the rest of the day as Ryu would leave for a buisness trip off planet tomorrow.
Everybody went their way and SunTzu followed Ami to her office. On the way she asked him about Bestine and he told her what happened on the planet.
Unfortunately they still didn't had any clue who was behind the attacks. The former CIS Members, the Corporate Sector Authority and all the guilds were all proven innocent of having command over the droids.
Right now they concentrated on investigations if one of the bigger crime organizations was responsible but they didn't had any proof yet.
Ami shared SunTzu's opinion that the attack shortly after the dead of that woman on Coruscant was no coincidence though.
They sat down at her desk and he was pretty sure they would talk about another coup.
But she didn't. She rather told him from a drug kingpin somewhere in Thailand that wanted to go interstellar and sell various chemical and synthetic drugs on other planets too.
SunTzu and someone accompanying, let's be honest here, Rei would meet with the drug lord, disguised as a couple of backers with interstellar contacts, on his villa somewhere in the jungle and talk about buisness until they would have enough information. Then they would leave again with the proof and Interpol and the Thai Authorities would take over.
They were to leave tomorrow and Agent Smith would be their contact person in the HQ.
The couple would take AICA and land at a nearby farm, where a Agent would pose as their driver and bring them there.
Well, back to fighting crime. And at least it looked like they wouldn't need any violence this time. Like really not, for one time at least.
SunTzu agreed to take the job and they went through the details before she drove him home.
Coming home from a victorious battle didn't mean that you didn't have to take care home of your household. SunTzu decided to get a household service droid as soon as possible.
He was listening to music on his headphones while he cleaned his kitchen up when his phone suddenly rang. The sudden sound startled him so much, that he hit his head on the open door of one of kitchen cabinets.
He was rubbing the spot when he took the phone.
"Hey TopGun, it's your marvelous girlfriend. I just wanted to let you know that although I'm a Miko i still am very open to earthly delights, which means I want my Kobe Beef tonight. So please get us a table at a place. And please don't be a cheapskate, this girl needs protein."
"Uhm, yeah. Hi by the way. How are you?"
"I'm good, just busy. Listen I gotta get back to work here. I'll be ready by seven. Byeeee."
With that she hung up and he sighed as he began searching for a fitting restaurant.
Somehow he managed to get his household, a trip to the barber, shopping, reserving a table and getting dressed up done in time.
It was seven pm and he was sitting in the back of a black cab at the stairs to the Hikawa Shrine and briefly had a phone call with his protege how her training flights today went. He was a bit more well-dressed today because the restaurant he was taking his girlfriend out was quite high-class. He would have preferred lighter clothes today though, the temperature was still over twenty five degrees on this sunny day in june.
Just as he hung up a wild Rei Hino appeared next to his window, wearing a short yellow dress with a high slit on the side and a belt made of golden ornaments, accompanied by a pair of yellow high heels and a red leather hand bag. Stunning as always.
The driver opened the door and as soon as Rei got in they left.
She greeted him with a kiss and seemed to be very happy that it worked.
The food at the restaurant was heavenly, SunTzu enjoyed it immensely too after days of dining hall food and military rations.
"Can you imagine, two days ago we were lying under fire in a jungle and now we're here eating Kobe Beef." SunTzu said as they were waiting for the desert they would share.
She had a glass of french red wine in her hand and fixed her gaze on him.
"Makes you wonder, doesn't it? I had a very similar train of thought when we were at the Bestinian Parliament." She paused for a moment. "You think it's right we do stuff like this?"
He sighed and shrugged. "Marvin told me once that survivor's guilt doesn't help anyone. I guess you heard of the life expectancy of a starfighter pilot in a galactic war. So." He raised his glass.
"To anyone that fell, so that we may sit here today. And everybody that is still out there fighting the fight."
They clinged their glasses together.
Dessert arrived and it looked delicious.
When they were finished with the dessert, that tasted even better than it looked, Rei leaned over and asked him about his meeting with Ami.
"Where we're going next? Robbing a starship again? Or clubbing?"
"Neither. Back to the jungle."
She sat straight up.
"What?"
"Thailand. We gonna have a little chat with a… local buisness man that wants to go interstellar. Just a talk tho, no fighting this time."
"Yeah, I think i heard that before." She rolled her eyes, took a sip of her wine and sighed dramatically. "But okay, I'm in. Someone has to take care of you. When are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow noon."
"How very thoughtful of our friends at Intelligence. I thought we would have to leave tonight again."
He felt a tender foot wandering up his pants, aiming for what was between his legs.
"This also means we have time tonight." She gifted him a lascivious smile while her foot finally found what it was aiming for.
"Check please!" SunTzu waved at the nearest waiter.
How could a priestess be so lewd at all?
A few minutes later the bill came up and SunTzu had to swallow hard when he saw how expensive this dinner actually was.
"That pussy pricey." She shrugged and emptied her wine.
He decided to not let her listen to Nicki Minaj so much anymore.
At least the shock took care of the fact, that he wouldn't have been able to stand up right now anyway. Which didn't mean that she would have to pay for this, her feet were damn dexterous.
The next morning Rei made Pancakes for them. In just an apron.
This was the second time he contemplated to immediately marry her.
For her it was just fun teasing him because she know they didn't had the time for much fun anyway. Which didn't stop her from telling him where the maple syrup she was pouring over the pancakes would taste great too.
After breakfast the priestess had the giggles when she thought about how cold his shower probably was right now.
Agent Smith collected them and brought them over to the base, they would take AICA to fly to Thailand and soon they were on their way, getting through the plan together while over the pacific.
Since it was Thailand the Hawaii-Shirt for SunTzu was back and Rei wore a light summer dress in a floral muster.
They flew in sensors off and low and landed on a half decayed farm somewhere near the border to Myanmar.
A Intelligence Agent welcomed them elliptical and immediately pointed toward a pickup truck.
They got into the back and they drove off.
Although the Hilux the guardians were traveling in was all-terrain capable the one hour drive was anything than comfortable.
SunTzu was also pissed that he wasn't allowed a pistol and Rei sat next to him grinning. She was their main source of firepower again.
They drove through a jungle path, similar to the one they were fighting on on Bestine a few days earlier and both looked at each other and rolled their eyes when suddenly they turned and the road got way better although still unpaved. When they came out of the jungle they came to a large, guarded gate, heavy steel fence going around.
The arrivals were critically analyzed by the guards who were armed with AKs and M16s.
The driver told the Guards who they were and the information was sent over radio to a higher up.
A minute later the gate opened and they were told to drive in.
Agent Smith told Rei and SunTzu that they were expected to stay overnight and that their driver would leave the estate when he dropped them off.
When something would come up AICA, could be in there in a few minutes.
More armed guards at the entrance of the main building and SunTzu was thoroughly searched for weapons.
They tried to do the same with Rei but she just stared the guards down. The only thing they were allowed to check was the inside her handbag.
They were lead in a large, expensively decorated living room full with art and sculptures from old Siam. They were told to sit down on a sofa, the sofa being from Gucci. Someone really had money. And liked to show it
A maid, she had a beautiful face but her Adam's apple giving away a secret of hers, served them cold fresh coconut milk.
"Please, it's not poisoned. Staying hydrated is important in these parts." A voice came in from behind them.
They turned around and a middle aged Thai man in a Versace shirt and linen pants came up to them.
He walked around the Sofa as Rei and SunTzu got up.
He greeted Rei with a hand kiss.
"Miss Langley, right?"
"Please, call me Asuka."
Rei nodded friendly and greeted the man.
Afterwards the kingpin shook SunTzu's hand.
"Victor Voorbeeld." SunTzu introduced himself.
While Rei's disguise was a Japanese-American investor, crypto-currency proficient, SunTzu's disguise was a Dutch Import-export entrepreneur.
They hoped the Thai kingpin wouldn't find out that SunTzu didn't speak any Dutch.
The man took a glass of cocos water and his guests followed the example.
After a bit of small talk the Druglord, calling himself Mr. Z, because he wanted to overcome the legendary Thai Druglord Mr. X, lead them into his office.
On the way, the office was in a different building in the middle of the estate, he led them past a big garage and showed them his large and exclusive car collection. Super sports cars, luxury limousines and SUVs as well as a Monster Truck.
The man was very proud of this collection and it was worth millions. After some time he led them on to the building where his office was in. It had reinforced walls and bulletproof glass obstructed and was guarded by a small army of armed thugs.
A large desk out of finest dark, exotic wood was standing in front of Elephant Statues made from the same rare wood.
Three elegant and very comfortable leather chairs were around the desk.
The man sat down, opened a humidor at the table and took out a large Cuban cigar.
He offered his guests one too and SunTzu declined, Rei on the other side took one and the man lighted his cigar and then hers.
The drug dealer's eyes were stuck on her mouth as she took a draw from the cigar.
He opened another humidor, it was filled with a big bag of marijuana and some prerolled Thai Sticks and asked SunTzu if he'd prefer to smoke this.
"It's all natural and very selectively breeded. Hand collected from my own few plants.
The best Marijuana you will find in whole Thailand."
SunTzu declined again.
While he started to talk about how hard it was to get a interstellar buisness going he stood up and got three tumblers, put ice cubes in them and fetched a very old and exclusive bottle of Scotch.
He filled the glasses up and pushed them over to SunTzu and Rei.
Rei took another lascivious draw from her cigar, the smoke filling the air.
Mr. Z was basically looking at Rei in trance now. The man slowly licked his lips as she took a sip of her whiskey and pressed her lips together to taste the whisky on them again.
SunTzu beside her took a big sip from his glass and narrowed his eyes slightly.
Rei touched her earlobe where a pearl earring was sitting. The earrings weren't pearls though, but rather a micro-camera with microphone and she just had activated them.
"Excellent Whiskey. But let's cut the chase, you will find that I'm a woman that exactly knows what she wants. And wasting time is not something I want." She looked challenging at the kingpin. "What kind of wares would you be able to provide for Mr. Voorbeeld and my joint-venture? As you know we're very proficient in interstellar export. 20 percent of the world's to outerspace exported precious stones goes over our company."
"I like woman that know what they want Miss Langley. And I got the business reports you sent me."
The reports were faked of course and Intelligence proofed again how good they actually were with faking documents.
"Apart from Marijuana, which probably is not that profitable anyway, I can deliver locally produced methamphetamine from the border region here and MDMA I produce in the country's south. I was thinking about 10 kilogram of Yaba Yaba and 1000 pills as trial. Where would you distribute the wares?"
"With our local contacts we can provide distribution at the Coruscanti and Correllian nightlife as well as on some of the entertainment worlds in the colonies."
"This sounds promising. I'm willing to give you a twenty percent share."
"Twenty five. We have the risk of getting busted in space. Not you."
"Twenty. I have to bring the drugs to the Netherlands."
"Twenty five, the supplying to the Netherlands Is already up and running."
"Twenty two and a half. My last offer."
Rei looked over to SunTzu.
"Me and my buisness partner have to talk about this first. In confidence. Maybe at our guest rooms."
"Ah, I'm terribly sorry. Most of our guest house is getting renovated right now and I can only accommodate Mister Voorbeeld there. The room your staying in is actually a guest room in my private accommodation. I only let my closest friends sleep there."
SunTzu was contemplating if they would come out here alive if he would get up and just break the man's neck right now. Probably not.
Too bad.
"There is a meeting room next door. Maybe you and your business associate can talk about my offer there."
Both Guardians were sure that the room was bugged but whatever. They basically had what they needed.
"Okay, we would like to use this room then." Rei said. She grabbed her purse and pulled out her lipstick and began to apply it, her lips shining red.
"Maybe we can finish our buisness talks at the pool. I wouldn't mind a stiff Martini and a jump into the pool after a successful buisness meeting. Just give me a few minutes to talk with Mr. Vorbeeld. I'm sure we can find an agreement." She winked to Mr. Z. and the man almost started drooling thinking about the blackhaired beauty in a Bikini.
"Of course, I'll be waiting at the pool for you. Please take your time."
They all left the room together, Mr. Z. probably already hurrying to the pool.
SunTzu and Rei entered the meeting room and looked around. The drugdealers didn't even tried to hide the cameras inside.
They sat down and looked at each other.
Rei stroke her earlobes again, the second stroke was the signal for Crystal Tokyo that they had what they needed and the mission was accomplished. Now for getting out.
Rei sighed and shook her head in disgust. That man was a creep, he hated men like him. Thinking that if they have money they'll get everything they want.
She motioned SunTzu to come over.
The pilot walked over and leaned over her, hands on the table.
She leaned over to his hands and pushed a button on his chronometer.
"Good, I wish I had an A-Wing as soon as possible."
A few seconds later a voice, AICA's voice, told, in three minutes and eighteen seconds it's six o'clock in Crystal Tokyo."
They sat down and acted like they were talking about the offer. For two minutes then SunTzu left the room with the comment he had to go to the bathroom.
Of course he overlooked the bathrooms in this building and went straight outside. He asked one of the guards where the guest house was and walked up there.
A few seconds later a loud rumbling in the sky could be heard and while AICA soared in, Rei came running out of the building the Druglord had his office in. A humidor in hand. The guards were to busy to find out what was coming in from the sky than to take care of the woman.
AICA shot over the estate, took a sharp turn and landed next to SunTzu, all weapons and shields activated. Rei arrived there as AICA just had sat down and opened her canopy. SunTzu helped her up and she sat down before he jumped in, the canopy closed and guards were running up all around, weapons raised but not sure if they should shoot or not.
The A-Wing lifted off.
"AICA, can you call this place's telephone up and SunTzu can you stay circling around it please?"
"Uhm, sure."
Rei put on her helmet as ring tones came in.
Someone took off.
Evening was coming as SunTzu circled with AICA over the estate. What was Rei up to now?
"Hello?"
"Hi, this is Asuka Langley. Can I talk to Mr. Z please?"
It took a few moments then the Druglord took the call.
"Miss Langley? What Is this about, was that plane yours? What about our business?"
"I'm sorry Mr. Z. or whatever your actual name is, we're not gonna do buisness together." She pulled her earrings out and pulled one apart, revealing a data link she linked with AICA's port. The data we're going to Crystal Tokyo now.
"What do you mean with this? What is going on here?"
She had a datapad in hand and was zooming in on GPS-Data of the estate.
"See, I despise men like you. Apart from being an chauvinistic asshole you're also poisoning this world. So fuck you and fuck you're mother you piece of shit, I'm out. Oh and I have a gift for you." She hung up with a satisfied smile.
"AICA, it's the one I marked. If you would be so friendly."
"Yes Ma'am!" A missile shot away from AICA and took course towards the estate.
The concussion missile hit the mansion's garage frontal, punched through its wooden door and exploded inside, vaporizing the collection in it and destroying the building.
The two lovers looked down to the chaos underneath them.
"Someone will be sad." SunTzu stated satisfied.
"Oh, he will be even more sad when he finds out that he doesn't has anything to relax himself also." Rei brought up the humidor and opened it. It was the one with the pre rolled pure marijuana cigars and the bag of weed.
"Diplomat Hino, I'm shocked." SunTzu said after looking back and shook his head.
"A priest from the shrine once told me, that this is from the earth and the gods put this here for me and you. It's good for meditating also." She shrugged.
"Let's get the hell out of here. AICA, I want to hear a saxophone solo as we disappear into the sunset please!"
Gerry Rafferty's world famous Saxophone play on Baker Street began to play as they began to ascend into the sky, where the sun was going down right now.
A hour later, Thai Military and Police Forces were already on the way to arrest Mr. Z with an international warrant, they landed on a small isolated bay on Okinawa and got out the cockpit.
SunTzu got a blanket from AICA's storage departments and they sat down on the beach, watching the stars while Rei ignited one of the Thai Sticks she stole from the Druglord.
The black haired woman took a draw and was a bit surprised how strong but good the weed was.
She then passed the stick to SunTzu.
"You know, I prefer this Okinawa and this beach to the ones on Bestine." She snuggled up next to him.