Summoning Part 6
Korean Friendship Bell,
Angel's Gate Park
(formerly Upper Reservation, Fort MacArthur)
San Pedro, CA
Friday, 16:00 hrs,
Two and a half weeks later
Jack Ryan watched as the two young women stood on the grass a few meters away from him and the bell pavilion behind him, bent over an electronic device and making notes of the readings. The analyst really should have stopped being surprised by the pair, but they still continued doing so in the couple weeks he had known them.
After Sarah McDougal and Nyamo Namo had finished translating the chants that the United States Navy had used for summoning the few ship girls under their direct command and briefed the senior officers on what was need to improve upon them, Admirals Painter and Greer had decided to detail Ryan as the intelligence liaison to the Japanese delegation and Captain Charlie Davenport as the military liaison, at least for the time being. That way Greer could return to Langley to get back to his regular work, and Admiral Painter could try and catch up with the stacks of work piled on his desk.
Davenport still had to detail most of his regular work to his deputies, he was so busy getting things ready for the next summoning attempt. Most of the work was setting up the physical facilities and material to do, after getting authorization to use the Seabee naval facilities at Port Hueneme and San Nicolas Island. That had taken a few days, along with the expedited security review for the SEALs that were being detailed to them for security. At this time there was only two assigned to them, but more were in the pipeline.
Lt. Jordan O'Neill was standing on the other side of the two girls, dressed not in a naval uniform but in jeans, a green checked flannel shirt over a black tee, and black nylon boots. Her eyes behind dark glasses kept going over the terrain when it wasn't looking over the few people also on the bluff the pavilion was on. It was a weekday so there were not that many people around the park, but most of them were looking at the sun starting to set over the ocean to the west.
Special Warfare Operator PO2 John Slovnik was standing closer to Ryan , his eyes focused toward the park behind them, along with the people walking around. There was a group clustered around an ice cream truck in the parking lot while some kids were playing basketball at the barebones court off to the side. He was in similar clothes as O'Neill, only his flannel shirt was dark blue and a small black duffle bag was slung over his back.
Standing next to Ryan was Captain Charlie Davenport. The senior officer was wearing his regular khaki uniform, but in order to not draw attention he had put on a plain black windbreaker jacket on to cover his uniform shirt and insignia. Ryan had seen him look at a flat side cap for a long moment before tucking it under his belt and out of sight before putting on a black ball cap he had picked up. He still looked a little more dressy than Jack , who was wearing dark blue khaki trousers and a green polo shirt with a black windbreaker on top as well.
Finally the last person in their group was Hiroyuki Akira. Standing a couple of meters away from the two girls, for once the Japanese security agent was not wearing a black suit with white shirt, even if his new outfit was in the same basic format. Black polo shirt with a white t-shirt peaking out and black jeans, dark blue windbreaker, black leather belt and boots, and of course his habitual RayBan Wayfarer sunglasses. For once his dark brown hair was not slicked back with heavy duty gel, but combed more casually. This was due to the fact that Sarah had demanded his comb and when he silently handed it to her the girl had run it through the bodyguard's hair a few times, breaking the gel but leaving enough hold to keep the hair in place. After seeing his reflection on a compact mirror Sarah held up to see his new hair style, he had merely grunted and walked away.
But what was really unusual was that almost everyone in their group was carrying concealed sidearms. The two SEALs were a given with Navy issue SIG Mk 25 9mm pistols and an M4 carbine in Slovnik's bag, Davenport had a SIG on in a leather paddle holster on his belt under his jacket, and even Akira had a Glock under his windbreaker, after he did a very accelerated use-of-force briefing and shooting qual. Ryan himself had a Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol he was familiar with that he had found in the SEAL armory when both Davenport and Greer had insisted that he be armed while out with Sarah and Nyamo. Ironically the only people not carrying guns were the girls themselves, but not to say they weren't armed.
For the last couple days the girls had been taking readings of magical energy at various places in Southern California, trying to narrow down ley lines and convergences that they could use to boast the power they could use in the summoning. At first they started at the naval base at Point Loma and Coronado in San Diego, then the group drove north to Marine Base Camp Pendleton later that day to do the same. As it had been explained to Davenport and Ryan, the readings they were taking were both measuring the strength of ambient magic and also getting directional bearings on stronger locations. The measurements had to be taken from the ground, and it had to be in close proximity to the ocean, within a half mile or so.
The Americans had been surprised seeing what the girls had used to take the measurements. The device was a small PDA with a screen mounted on top of a handle with a pair of sensor wings alongside the screen that had LED lights along their lengths. The wings normally lay alongside the screen but would extend as the signal was detected. The lights would start flashing and the number of lights along the wings would increase the stronger the signal. A sound function was also a part of the device, with slow beeps upon low levels of detection, increasing in speed the higher the level. Normally Sarah had the sound turned to the lowest level, as she said the beeps sounded similar to the creepy motion tracker sound from the movie Aliens.
The biggest surprise had been when Ryan had asked what the device was called. Upon hearing that it was called the Psycho Kinetic Energy Meter, or PKE Meter for short, Davenport then asked where they had obtained it. After Sarah had glanced at Motoko Kusanagi and received a nod of permission, the blonde had explained that they had bought the plans and blueprints from Zeddemore Industries' Paranormal Research Center in the US and made their own in Japan. Everyone's eyes had widened at that statement. Not only was Zeddemore Industries a thriving global financial enterprise, it's founder Winston Zeddemore was one of the original Ghostbusters in New York City, having been present during the Gozer Incident in Central Park in 1984. When Ryan incredulously asked why the US military did not have access to these devices, since they would be very useful in detecting Abyssals, Sarah sardonically replied that the government via the EPA had seized several during their investigations of the Ghostbusters. Davenport then also reluctantly stated that the government had been burned so many times by charlatans trying to sell bogus equipment to the military to fight the Abyssals they had stopped taking proposals from any persons or companies offering them. A poker-faced Kusanagi then suggested that they contact Zeddemore himself, especially since prior to forming his financial company and before joining the Ghostbusters the man had been an Electronic Counter-Measures expert in the US military with a Top Secret clearance, so he might be considered at least a little bit trustworthy. Davenport's lips thinned out before he turned and left the room to make the calls.
The two young women would scan for energy at certain wavelengths, Sarah operating the device and Nyamo taking notes beside her. When Ryan had gotten close to the pair, he could see that the PKE meter was essentially a mini-tablet with sine waves and numbers showing on the screen. Asking what frequencies they were scanning, Sarah had borrowed Nyamo's notebook and wrote out a half dozen freqs. Tearing out the page, she handed it to Ryan and told him to forward it to Admiral Greer but to use encrypted comms, since this kind of thing was of interest to the Russians and the Chinese. Ryan internally cringed, but did as she suggested.
After the scans at Pendleton, Sarah had asked that they plan a field trip to scan a couple more locations up north, especially since their readings were starting to show some probable ley lines worth investigating. After asking for a plastic coated paper map of the US West Coast and placing it on the conference room table, the blonde started drawing bearing lines using rulers and grease pencils, marking nodes of energy along the way. Several of the lines passed through various islands off the California coast, and Sarah explained that it was because volcanic vents and formations had higher magical concentrations. However, most of the bearings lead to Hawaii, Washington state, Wyoming and other nearby active volcanic locations, which made sense since a sizable number of battles against the Abyssals, and indeed even their spawning grounds were at such locations, except for the most infamous one: the Marianas Trench in the Western Pacific.
After a couple of days the trip was all set. The plan was to fly on a Navy CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter who's crew needed flight time to maintain qualifications to San Clemente Island in the morning to take measurements there, then fly to the US Coast Guard Terminal Island base at the San Pedro harbor. South of the city of Los Angeles, it was the closest military base in the area to where they wanted to take readings. Of course, there was another reason for going there as well, a sidetrip that Sarah had to get approval from Admiral Painter to do. It was something Captain Davenport was not too happy about, but otherwise did not say anything. After their readings at San Pedro they would overnight at guest quarters at Fort McArthur, a USAF base on the shore and flying to Port Hueneme and San Nicolas Island the next day to take readings there and then flying back to San Diego.
Arriving by helo at Terminal Island at about 11:00 AM, the group checked out a large passenger van and left the base, but instead of driving toward San Pedro across the Vincent Thomas Bridge, a smaller green version of the Golden Gate Bridge, they drove north into Harbor City, a manufacturing subsection of LA. Turning into a dead end street, they parked outside an industrial shop, the name Emerson USA between two angled red flashes the only ID on the building. Jumping out of the van, Sarah and O'Neill waited for everyone else to unload before the blonde walked up to the gated door and rang the buzzer to be let in. When the door clicked open they walked into a small showroom with cases displaying knives… lots of knives. And t-shirts and other memorabilia.
The young man behind the counter was used to many different types of people coming in, since these knives were "famous in the worst places" for use by military special forces and police personnel, both in and out of uniform. So he was only a little surprised to see two younger women in their early twenties and a slightly older female start looking closely at the folding knives in the cases. The Asian guy with the dark shades just stood back and kept an eye on things while the older naval officer in uniform and a younger guy in civvies were looking at the framed articles and reviews hanging on the wall.
After a few minutes, there were several knives sitting on top of the counter. The darker complexioned girl seemed to like the karambits, both the folding and fixed blade versions as well as the Commander folder if the slight smile on her face was any indication. The blonde girl liked the large seax folder and fixed blades, and was also looking at the smaller CQC-8 folder. The older female was looking at the CQC-7 fixed blade knife.
A surprise was their reaction to the price. When told that the prices for the knives started at the mid two hundreds and only got higher, most people flinched, unless they were military people with a wallet full over overseas deployment and hazard pay. These people just shrugged it off, looking back down at the knives before them. But it was when the blonde girl started looking at the knives on special display that things got sticky.
"What are these knives here?" Sarah was looking at a single showcase opposite the main cases, which notably were in different blade shapes and handle colors.
"Those are the prototypes and one offs that the boss made, most of them by hand. They aren't for sale," the erstwhile salesman answered. His real job was an apprentice to the fabricators, learning how to use the machine tools to make the different models of knives. But since he was the most junior tradesman, he was the one detailed to assist customers in the showroom, especially if the secretary in the office was too busy.
"You sure about that?" The girl's eyes fixed on his. "Can you call him please?"
The employee hesitated. His boss was usually busy pushing paper in the office when he was not helping catch up on the heavy list of backorders and working on different prototypes. He did not like being bothered, but having this girl's blue eyes looking at him like that, plus the female military officer in civies and the uniformed male officer looking at him was making him reconsider. The fact that that the Asian guy in the black outfit with sunglasses on even in the darkened room was making his skin crawl had nothing to do with it. Really.
Stepping out of the showroom the guy returned a couple moments later with a shorter grey-haired man. Muscled forearms covered with both minor cut and burn scars showed under a faded denim shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a tanned lined face and narrowed eyes focused on them. "Can I help you?" he asked shortly.
"Sorry to bother you sir." Out of habit Sarah gave a brief head bow. "I'm interested in these knives in this case, and I was told you're the one that made them." She pointed at a specific knife. "What can you tell me about this one?"
The older man looked at her for a long moment before speaking. "It's a modified CQC-8, five inch serrated blade with a stonewash finish and flipper tab and without the wave hook with tan micarta handle scales. It was made to order for someone who paid up front, but never came back to pick it up. Died overseas." The man finished speaking with a raised eyebrow, as if challenging her.
"You mind me looking at it close up?" Sarah asked. He unhooked some keys from his belt and unlocked the case, taking the knife out and holding it for a few moments before somewhat reluctantly handing it to her handle first.
Moving carefully the girl used both hands to open and close the blade, then used the flipper tab to open the knife then her thumb to push the liner lock to close it. Moving her hand so the knife was held in a so called 'saber grip', she then spun it so it was held with the blade emerging from the bottom of her fist in a reverse grip. This exposed the opposite side of the blade, and upon seeing it Sarah froze before raising the knife so she could look at it closely. "What does this engraving mean?" she asked softly. On the blade was a horned skeletal figure holding an hourglass in one hand and a spear aimed at a bleeding heart in the other.
"It signifies that someone has left their unit and is operating independently." The boss was looking at her curiously. "It's also used by certain maritime units."
"It's the Blackbeard pirate flag. It's used by SAS boat troop members once they complete maritime quals in training." Blue eyes fixed on suddenly widening brown eyes.
"How do you know that?" The British Special Air Services was first founded during World War II as a desert raiding group in North Africa and after the war expanding into airborne, maritime and counter-terrorism operations. First becoming publically known during the Iranian embassy siege in 1980, it was widely considered the world's premier special operations unit, at least in the West.
"A guy who was former SAS came to rescue me from a town in Thailand along with another guy years ago. Gaz was hit during the breakout, and he died of his wounds after we got clear." Sarah looked down at the blade again. "He had a Blackbeard flag patch on his gear."
"Gaz?" All the adults in the room were looking at them as the boss spoke.
"Warrant Officer Gaz Shaw, UK Army, SAS. Invalidated out of service after losing a lung from a gunshot wound in an op he couldn't talk about. Did contract labor work after that, was doing security on an archeological dig when I got grabbed, came to Roanapur to get me out." Sarah looked up with sorrow on her face.
"Obi-wan Nairobi?" The name was spoken as a question by Jordan O'Neill in shock. That was the nom de guerre of a publically unnamed British special warfare operator in the country as a military trainer that had responded to a massive terror incident at a large shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya; four terrorists opened fire in the mall after a suicide bomb was detonated, killing and injuring dozens of people. The operator had rushed over to the location in his personal vehicle, geared up from the trunk of his car, and spent hours helping to evacuate people from the mall while occasionally exchanging fire with the terrorists. When the Kenyan army anti-terror unit arrived and eventually cleared the complex the British operator went with them and was credited with killing two of the four terrorists in the end. He became world-famous as pictures of the operator wearing battle armor with the Blackbeard flag patch and gear over jeans and a civvy shirt and a balaclava mask covering the lower half of his face but exposing his salt and pepper hair and eyes were published, especially the ones where he was carrying out wounded victims and returning to the mall with his rifle at the ready. It was rumored that he had been an active service operator since the British and Kenyan governments refused to identify him by name. It was also rumored that the British government was angry at him for getting involved without authorization, but it was also said that the operator had received a royal summons and was decorated with the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and induction into the Order of the British Empire by the Queen herself. And while Obi-wan Nairobi was officially unidentified with his nickname being a mixture of the name of one of the major hero characters from the Star Wars films and the location of the battle, his real identity was pretty much an open secret among special warfare operators.
"I wouldn't know. Gaz didn't really talk about operational stuff around the camp fire, especially the active duty stuff. All I know is he had that patch on his med pouch he always wore on the island. And the same engraving was on the knife that he left to Akira." Everyone now looked over at the Asian man standing quietly to the side. Without prompting he drew a battered but well maintained Emerson knife and flipped it open, showing it was also a CQC-8 knife with the same engraving, only this knife had black micarta handles. He let the shop boss look at it closely for a few moments before he closed it and put it away
Sarah looked to the shop boss before she looked down at the knife in her hands. Closing it carefully she handed it back to the boss, who held it in his hands but stayed silent. Sighing she looked over at the counter and the half dozen knives spread on top it. "Time to pay for this stuff, we're burning daylight."
"Which of the knives will you be taking, Miss?" It was the young employee who asked, pulling over a notepad to list the model numbers before entering them on the invoice.
"All of them." As everyone's eyes went wide, Sarah reached into one of the pockets of her jeans and pulled out a shiny coin. "You guys take gold Kruggerand?"
"Kruggerand?" The young employee asked in a strangled voice. The coin was an troy ounce of 22 karat (92% pure) gold, minted in South Africa and world famous since it's appearance in one of the Lethal Weapon films. Given the current price of gold per ounce, that one coin was worth about three thousand US dollars.
"Don't want to carry a fist full of dollars," Sarah's lips twitched, "and I don't like using credit cards if I can help it. Making change can be a pain in the ass though." She glanced over at the shop boss, who was watching her with an odd look on his face. "You OK with this, boss man?" she asked as she passed the coin to him to examine.
The boss's eyes moved from her face to the gold coin and back again. Then his eyes moved to the senior uniformed naval officer that up until now had not said anything and raised an eyebrow. Understanding the unspoken question Davenport nodded and held out his military ID folder, showing not only his name and rank, but his current assignment to the office of the Third Fleet commander, in effect vouching for Sarah. The boss nodded in return and turned back to the blonde who was watching him. "I don't have enough cash on hand to give you much change for that."
"Not a problem, we're going to get our money's worth. List off the cost for all of these and tell me how much is left." Sarah gestured toward the counter. "Nyamo, take that fixed karambit and Commander folder for yourself. Lt. O'Neill, Captain Davenport, Mr. Ryan, pick a knife for yourselves, and ask PO Slovnik to come in here and pick one for himself." The military people's eyes went wide but Sarah kept talking. "I'll take that fixed blade seax and that folder seax. How much does that total out to?"
After a few moments of frantic scribbling the shop employee added up the amount and sales tax, including Slovnik's knife when he made his choice of a CQC-7 fixed blade, and then showed the sum to the boss who nodded. "The total so far is $2750."
"Hmm." Sarah looked around the shop. "How about throwing in some t-shirts and swag as well?" The boss nodded in concurrence, and those present either got some shirts (Sarah got a black shirt with the words "Scots Irish – Born Fighting" in green and a Celtic cross and a dark green ball cap with the company logo) and Velcro patches or in Davenport's case a black ball cap with blacked out company insignia and a bag of coffee beans to go with a mini Commander folder. Ryan picked a Sheepdog spear point serrated flipper and a ball cap in dark blue. Some more additions on the invoice and both the boss and Sarah nodded in agreement, with the boss tucking the gold coin into his shirt pocket at the end of it.
Once everything was packed up in their boxes and placed in plastic bags, they gave their farewells and turned to leave. But then the boss asked Sarah to wait a moment, and when she turned toward him, he held something out in his hand - the custom knife Gaz had ordered.
"If he risked his life to rescue you, I'm pretty sure Gaz would have wanted you to have this. You can probably make better use of this instead of it sitting in a case here." Sarah slowly took the offered knife and slid it into her right front jeans pocket. Passing her shopping bag to Nyamo, she stepped up and briefly hugged the older man, who stiffened for a moment before relaxing.
Taking her bag back, Sarah turned toward the boss and gave a Japanese style half bow. "It was an honor and pleasure to meet you, sir. Hopefully we'll meet again one day." Reflexively both Akira and Nyamo also bowed toward him, and he did a head bow in return. Sarah gave a half smile and then turned and walked out of the darkened showroom into the sunlight, Nyamo close behind her. But before Akira left he handed a business card to the man and murmured that he would be in touch for some possible custom work. The boss just nodded and watched as the bodyguard walked out of the showroom.
Ryan watched as the two girls finished with their note taking and started putting their equipment away in a shoulder bag. Glancing down at his wristwatch he saw that it was ten minutes after four and looking at the horizon he could see that the sun was getting closer to the water. Glancing around he could see how beautiful this park was, and not just the hill they were standing on. Formerly a coastal artillery emplacement built at the turn of the 20th century to protect the harbor nearby, the artillery was removed after the Pacific War and anti-aircraft and anti-missile missiles batteries were built in their place. That had lasted until the 1970s when the missile defense system was declared obsolete and removed, then the base was reduced in size and the hill transferred to the City of Los Angeles, which rebuilt it into a park. The concrete artillery pads and old ammo and missile bunkers were still there but permanently blocked off. In fact, they were standing near an old partially buried pillbox on the edge of the hill before it dropped down toward the road below then another park on the last hilltop ridge before it dropped into the ocean. Ryan could imagine being a sentry at night assigned to keep watch from that pillbox after the Pacific War had started, just waiting for the Japanese battleship fleet to come sailing over the horizon before opening fire. Of course, now that he thought about it the Steven Spielberg film 1941 was a humorous take on the very real panic that swept the West Coast after Pearl Harbor where people were fully awaiting another Japanese attack.
Lost in thought Ryan turned his head when he saw the two girls walk up to him out of the corner of his eye. "This really is a pretty place, isn't it Mr. Ryan?" Sarah asked lightly.
"Yes it is. If my wife and daughter ever come out to the West Coast I would like to bring them out here to visit." Ryan replied.
"Where do they live? And how old is your daughter?" asked Sarah in curiosity.
"My family lives in the Tidewater area of Maryland. My wife's name is Cathy, and my daughter Sally is eight years old." Ryan was already pushing security by giving names and a general location, but after what had happened when he interrupted an attempted kidnapping of royals in London, and the terrorists in question then came to America to take vengeance against him and his family and the news coverage after both events, he was not saying anything that was not discoverable on the internet. "Do you have any family nearby?"
"Not really. My closest blood relatives died when I was a teen, then I was adopted by a family friend in Japan. I pretty much made a new family there, but they're all still over in Tokyo. Nyamo here is my closest friend," Sarah threw an arm around the other girl's shoulder, who blushed in response. "I do want to return to my birth town in Northern California, to visit my mom and granddad's graves and see who is still around from my childhood, but that's it."
"I see. I'm sorry for asking." Ryan was a little ashamed for asking, as he had read the security files for everyone in the Japanese delegation, so he should have already known all of this. But as he was going to keep talking, he paused as he saw that both Sarah and Akira, who was standing nearby as was his wont, had stiffened and looked over toward the coastline. As they did so, Ryan noticed something he had tuned out earlier. The sound of dogs barking frantically.
At the base of the hill they were standing on was a section of the park that was designated as a dog park about fifty meters away. There were not that many dogs present earlier so their barks were not overly noticeable, but now they were going crazy, howling and barking and trying to run away from the front of the park that fronted on the road below. But as Ryan looked toward the road he noticed something new. A woman wearing a long flowing white dress that reached below her knees and long loose black hair was walking along the road, presumably from the path that lead from the waterline up to the road and toward the entrance of the dog park. A pale white skinned woman that was starting to look horrifyingly familiar.
"Lieutenant!" Ryan almost shouted as he watched the woman cross the road and entered the dog park, the remaining canines on leashes either pulling free of their owners' hands and running away toward the rear of the park or lunging at the woman but stopping short when the woman glanced at them coolly. "Possible hostile approaching!" As O'Neill ran up to them with her pistol out Ryan had a burst of inspiration. "Ms. Nyamo, turn on the PKE meter!"
As the islander girl pulled out the meter and activated it, Captain Davenport and PO Slovnik ran up to them as well. Davenport had his pistol out and Slovnik had unslung his duffle bag and was opening it. Before they could ask any questions, the instrument in Nyamo's hands started to scream as the alert function activated. Everyone turned and looked at the meter in horror as there was a steady loud wail and the sensor arms were fully extended and flashing rapidly.
"Let's fucking go!" O'Neill grabbed Sarah's arm to drag her away from the hill top and toward the van when to her surprise the younger woman pulled away from her effortlessly. O'Neill was about to grab her again when the blonde glanced over at her and the look in her blue eyes caused her to halt.
"I don't think we're in danger here." Sarah stated quietly. "She's alone, she's not moving quickly, and she's not displaying weapons."
"She's a freaking Abyssal!" O'Neill hissed in a low voice. The people around them had noticed that they had drawn their weapons and started running away. But having the public hear that there was a parahuman enemy nearby could cause a full blown panic.
"If she wanted us dead, or to commit indiscriminate slaughter, she would have fired on us already. She's used 5 inch naval cannon and 20 mm auto-cannon before," replied Sarah. O'Neill could hardly forget that; when she and Slovnik had been briefed on the shipgirl summoning project, they had been shown the satellite video footage of the Abyssal Princess slaughtering a Chinese combined arms battalion with hardly any effort. "I think she wants to talk."
"Talk?" Captain Davenport asked in a strangled voice, his face pale.
"Can you think of another reason a single Abyssal would approach us like this?" Sarah asked reasonably. "Plus she very well might not be an Abyssal, at least a full one." When the military personnel looked at her in disbelief, the blonde looked upwards and jerked her head. When everyone looked up, they could see a large black crow or raven circling lazily above them. "Remember my story about the crow? This might be our only way to find out."
"Mr. Akira, what do you think about all this?" Davenport asked. Everyone turned to look at the Asian security agent, who even with his Ray Ban sunglasses could be seen to be focused intently on the figure below. After a few moments, he spoke softly.
"She's probably right. One Abyssal, even a Princess type, would not approach so close to a military base, especially with no weapons deployed." Akira's eyes flicked toward Davenport for a moment. "That being said, if we are going to meet there is no reason not to be careful."
"What do you have in mind?" Davenport inquired.
"Sarah and I approach together, something goes wrong I grab her and we run. I'll have some explosives on hand ready to deploy." The blonde twitched slightly; any explosives that Akira would use would more likely be ki-based rather than chemical-based. "Lt. O'Neill will be standing at an angle facing seaward with the carbine at a low ready, and PO Slovnik will be off on the opposite side with that weapon you have in the case in the van." It was now the naval personnel's turn to twitch; the weapon in the case would cause panic if it was actually used out in the open. "Keep in mind that most of the weapons we have will not do significant damage to an Abyssal, at the very least she has the armor rating of one of your Abrams tanks."
Now everyone was looking ashen, but before any of the military personnel could say anything another soft voice spoke up. "I'm going with you." Everyone turned to look at Nyamo, who had a determined look on her face. Seeing the doubt on their faces she continued speaking. "Sadako-chan was my friend, she is not going to hurt us."
At this point everyone turned to look at Akira, who was now looking at Sarah. The blonde's face showed the thoughts that were racing through her head. Finally she nodded. "Akira-san, if something goes wrong you grab Nyamo and run, I can run fast enough on my own."
Even as she said this yet another person spoke. "I'm going as well." Now everyone turned to look at Jack Ryan. "If you are going to have contact with a possible enemy paranormal, it can't be just Japanese personnel, the American government has to be there too."
"We're going to be talking in Japanese probably, I don't think Sadako spoke English very well." Sarah had a doubtful look on her face. "And if we have to run, you probably won't be fast enough to get away." While Ryan was in fairly good shape, he was only a baseline human and not chi and ki users like Sarah and Akira, who was strong and fast enough to have Nyamo flapping in the wind as he held her and ran.
"I'll also have my phone recording, we can translate later." Ryan then gave a weak smile. "And we just pray that we don't have to run."
"You know, we could just run right now and call for military back up." O'Neill was looking doubtful even as she spoke.
"So we're just going to leave an Abyssal Princess wandering around a freaking public park?" Sarah's voice was not sarcastic, but it came close. "Plus, what's the closest military base with attack aircraft? How long will it take to get strike fighters or attack helos here?" Everyone now turned to look at Captain Davenport, who was grimacing at the thought.
"Even if I call Third Fleet and have the Admiral authorize it, it would take at least half an hour minimum. Edwards Air Force Base has F-15 Eagles on five minute launch warning and they can get here in twenty minutes on full afterburner, but they are loaded for air-to-air intercept, swapping for ground munitions would take fifteen minutes minimum. Marine Super Cobra attack helos would take an hour from Camp Pendleton, half an hour for F/A-18 Hornet strike fighters from Miramar," the naval captain answered reluctantly.
"Welp…" Sarah looked down at the female figure at the base of the hill, who could be seen looking up at them but not otherwise moving. "That sounds to be the best plan we can come up with right now, but I do have a suggestion. Captain Davenport, you need to stay behind and get on the phone with your admiral while you keep an eye on us. You need to get military forces spun up but not responding yet." She could see everyone's eyes widen. "Unless you want to call down a full tactical air strike on a public park and neighborhood filled with civilians." The look of pain reformed on Davenport's face. "Plus you can tell everyone what happened if this all goes to hell in a hand basket and you have to glass this hilltop."
"Right." Davenport closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and turning toward Slovnik. "Hand your weapon to the Lieutenant and go get the weapon from the van. Hurry." The petty officer nodded and after handing his M4 carbine and a couple of spare magazines to O'Neill took off at a dead run. O'Neill stuffed the mags in her back jeans pockets and held the carbine against her chest with the muzzle pointed down but ready to be brought up and fired in a moment.
It only took a minute but it felt much longer when Slovnik returned with a bulky Pelican weapon case. Dropping it on the ground the SEAL knelt down and unlocked and opened it revealing a Mk 14 MGL. Looking to be the oversized result of a one-night stand between Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum revolver and a grenade launcher, it had a six shot revolving cylinder that chambered and fired 40mm grenades. Slovnik had cracked the weapon open and was loading a mix of high explosive armor piercing, flash bang and smoke grenades. Rotating the cylinder so the flash bang round would be the first fired, he turned on the red dot sight on top and tossed the sling over his shoulder before standing up and pointing the muzzle toward the ground. And it was a good thing most of the civilians had already run away; the sight of a weapon that looked like it should be carried by a Terminator would have caused a full panic.
Sarah looked down the hill and could see the woman below still looking up at them. Backing away a little bit, the blonde turned to look at Davenport. "Captain, if you could go stand over by the bell pavilion, go ahead and make the call to Third Fleet, we're going to try and summon the Princess up here." Seeing the incredulous look on his face, she explained. "If we have to run we don't want to do it uphill, and if things go to shit Slovnik's party favor might knock her down the hill." The captain nodded reluctantly and quickly walked the twenty meters to the pavilion before turning and putting his mobile phone to his ear.
"Once more into the breach…" Sarah muttered as she peered down the hill again. Seeing the Princess still looking up, the blonde made a hand motion to summon the Abyssal toward them. After a moment the woman started walking up the hill with no effort, almost as though she was strolling up a slight grade instead of a grassy and rocky slope.
Sarah had backed away so that the four of them were standing five meters from the edge of the hill and O'Neill and Slovnik were standing three meters away on either side. "Remember, everyone keep their weapons pointed down or holstered," Sarah muttered. "If we have to fire we are probably screwed, and all our weapons can do is maybe scratch the paint. So if we go to guns just lay down suppressive fire and run." The blonde turned toward Ryan, who was looking pale. "You might want to start recording now. Even better, call Captain Davenport and tell him to go on conference call to Third Fleet and leave the line open, they can record everything," The American intel official nodded and fiddled with his phone for a few moments before holding it in his left hand by his side.
"One more thing." Slovnik did not talk much, but his low voice drew their attention this time. "If I have to fire you're all going to be within the blast radius of the ammo. As soon as stuff goes south try and make as much space between you and her." Of course if Lt. O'Neill screamed out 'Danger Close, fire for effect!' it would be a moot point.
The group fell silent for a few moments, until finally the white figure crested the hill and came to a stop three meters away. They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, as the solo woman stayed silent, and the quartet had not decided on who the spokesperson was or what they would start their conversation with. But then the decision was taken from them.
Surprising everyone and faster than they had ever seen her move, Nyamo was suddenly hugging the white clad woman, her side of her head against her chest. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Sakado-chan," the younger girl sobbed as she spoke in Japanese. "We didn't save you, you got taken because of us, I'm so sorry…" Slowly Sadako wrapped one arm around Nyamo's waist while the other hand started to stroke her hair. Sarah and Akira looked at each other with expressions of dismay and exasperation, Ryan was just looking confused and both O'Neill and Slovnik were looking freaked out since with Nyamo pressed up against her they no longer had a clean shot at the Abyssal Princess.
"It's not your fault Nyamo-chan, it was all you could do to protect yourselves." The Princess' voice was a low contralto that was a little too close to the voice of someone the pair had known years ago. "If the two of you had not had weapons, you would have been taken as well." Sarah twitched a little, since she had not been carrying physical weapons when the trio had been attacked. It was only the tricks that she had literally had up her sleeves that had saved her.
Finally the sobbing stopped and Nyamo pulled away slightly, swiping at her red tearing eyes and runny nose with the sleeve of her sweater. Stepping back, the islander girl rejoined the others, at which point both Sarah and Akira made half a step forward and gave a full bow toward the Abyssal. "Sadako-chan, I wish to apologize as well. I still feel I could have done more to protect you." Sarah stated as she stood straight again.
"We can only do what we can, no more, no less, Sarah-kun." The white skinned woman replied easily. "That is why it is more noteworthy when we exceed our limits." She then turned toward Akira, who was staying silent but the faint signs of sorrow were showing on his face. "And thank you for what you did, Akira-san. You were not able to save me, but I saw what you did. It was not my fate to be saved by you that day."
The words caused the Asian bodyguard to blink behind his dark glasses. "How?" he asked in a low voice. "By the time I got to you it was too late."
"It was too late to save me, but I was still there."
The Princess' expression hardened slightly. "I saw you avenge me against my tormentors, and I saw you pray for me to pass to the other side. For that you have my gratitude." The Abyssal gave a half-bow, which Akira returned with a full bow. "I also have a message for you. Step closer." With barely any hesitation Akira did so they were face to face, at which point the Princess leaned forward and whispered in his ear. When she stepped back Akira had gone pale, almost to the point of matching the woman's complexion and his eyes had gone wide. After a few moments of shock the man stepped back to where he was standing next to Sarah again.
"Please pardon our rudeness, we had personal matters to deal with." The Princess now had turned to Ryan, who was surprised to be spoken to by the supernatural being. The Princess was now speaking English, abet with a noticeable accent. "I am Sadako, formerly of Japan." She gave a slight head bow. "I've moved on beyond this mortal existence, but I have come back to try and help even the scales of this conflict. Because at the rate things are going, it does not look good for your people."
"I am Jack Ryan, an analyst with CIA, working with Ms. Sarah." Ryan returned the head bow clumsily. "I have many questions, any that you could answer would be very helpful." The Princess nodded and he kept talking. "First of all, are you what we call an Abyssal? A Princess type?"
"To a certain extent. When I passed on I met the circumstances to return and the beings beyond gave used a loophole to be able to augment my power. While I would have certain paranormal powers, it would not be enough to defend myself from the Abyssals." As she spoke the crow that had been circling above landed on the ground between them and started pecking at the ground. Ryan had looked up some articles about crows and their roles as psychopomps, or guides for the dead. But one thing that was coming to mind right now was the physical aspects of crow and their cousins the ravens. Crows were usually smaller with smooth beaks while ravens were bulkier with a thicker more sturdy bill. But this specimen in front of them looked to be a hybrid of the two, a crow that looked to be twice as big as it should be. "As a result of being allowed to return to this world to make things right, I am in a position to pass some information to you." This drew Ryan's attention like nothing else could.
"First of all you must realize that although I have the powers and abilities of an Abyssal, I am fundamentally different from them. They are the spirits of nature and of war, born from the sea and blood and iron. Even though they have the appearances of humans, they are not. They have more in common with the winds and the storms, and their interactions with humanity did not make things better." At this point Ryan was done with pretending he was merely holding his mobile phone at his side, now he had it up and pointed at her like a microphone.
"Have you ever wondered why most of the Abyssal attacks are taking place in the Pacific, why most of the shipgirls manifest there?" The group in front of her nodded silently; even though shipgirls could and had appeared in oceans all over the world, most of the hostile supernatural beings tended to materialize in one general area; the Mid-Western Pacific, surrounded by China, Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia. "It is because of the waste and raping of resources from the seas. It was bad enough when the wooden sailing ships hunted the whales and the steel factory ships spread miles of nets to pull tons of fish from the waters. It got worse. Man began to deliberately dump it's refuse and waste into the seas they were despoiling. Chemical and nuclear waste, garbage that would never decompose, or worse dissolve partially and be absorbed into the creatures that live in the seas and sicken and kill them. There were ships from the West and East that would sail to the coasts of Africa and strip the fish from the water to near extinction with kilometers of drift nets, then dump highly toxic waste as they left." The Princess looked at their faces again, which were a combination of sorrow and shame even though it was not their fault. "But then the worst occurred, what caused the spirits of the seas to break free of their bonds."
At this point the Princess stopped speaking and bowed her head. The silence stretched for a long moment, to the point where the others were concerned, when she looked up and right at a certain person standing behind them at the pavilion. "Please call down the naval officer that is observing us, I want him to hear this directly." With some hesitation Ryan brought the phone to his face and repeated the request, and a few moments later Davenport was standing beside them when she continued speaking. "What do you know about pre-war steel, Mr. Ryan? And I mean from before the end of the Great Pacific War."
The American intel analyst frowned. "The basics. Pre-war steel refers to metals made for military ship use before the end of the Pacific War, when the Earth's atmosphere was contaminated by nuclear materials from the atomic bombings and later on by above ground atomic testing. It's more valuable than regular steel because it is used for certain medical and nuclear detection instruments. It's also hard to source because most of the metal from that era that was used in ships and tanks was scrapped and reused."
"Yes, it is very valuable. Where a ton of regular steel has a price of $2000 a ton, confirmed prewar steel has sold for $34,000 a ton. Which certain unscrupulous people and nations have taken advantage of." The Princess paused again for a long moment. "And there is only one semi-accessible source of prewar steel left." At this point Davenport gave a groan, causing everyone to look at him in concern.
"It's warships, isn't it? People are illegally scavenging sunken warships." There was a look of pain on Davenport's face.
"Yes. Their ships come with cutting torches and explosives and cranes and tear apart ships from both the Allied and Japanese navies. Steel, brass, lead, copper, all of it has high value for just it's prewar manufacture, let alone if it is recognizable artifacts. Anything that can be resold is kept, everything else, including human remains, is dumped back into the water like offal." There was anger visible on the Princess' face now. "And by profaning these war graves, the fury of the men that lived and died on these ships twisted the spirits of the ships into what you now call Abyssals."
"But why have so many Abyssals appeared? Shouldn't it be limited to the ships… affected?" Davenport's words were hesitant, but the others understood why. As horrifying as the thought of illegal salvagers tearing apart the resting places of men who died for their countries, the fact that they were now attacking their own made things worse.
"The spiritual power of the first Abyssals tore holes into the spiritual world, and the spirits that emerged affected other ship girls," the Princess replied. "Unfortunately the most susceptible spirits were the Japanese ships, the ones that had crews and officers that subscribed to the Code of Bushido, and they still maintain their hatred and fury against their enemies."
"Then why are the Abyssals attacking Japanese shipping? I understand the US and UK, and China, but Japan is their homeland." Surprisingly the question came from Nyamo.
"Because of two reasons. One is that the Abyssals don't considering themselves human, and that because of their despoiling of the oceans they consider humanity their enemy. The other reason may be that the Japanese in these current times are so culturally different than how they were during the war that the Abyssals don't recognize them as their countrymen anymore." The anger on the Princess's face had changed to sorrow again.
"How are you getting this information? Are you interacting with the Abyssals?" There was some suspicion on Davenport's face now. And it was not unreasonable; Sadako had the appearance and powers of an Abyssal even if she was talking with them now, something that had never happened before.
"It is too risky to approach the main concentrations of the Abyssals or their leaders the Princesses, but it is less so with their younger and smaller compatriots, the destroyers and submarines and patrol boats. The larger and older the shipgirls are like cruisers and battleships and carriers, the more intelligent and cunning they are. And my power is such that the younger ones think I am a Princess, so they are willing to speak of what they know. But most of what I know and passed on is from their choruses." She saw the confusion on their faces. "Presumably you've heard some unusual sounds through your sonar systems, you have identified it as communications between Abyssals, much like whale song?" The Princess raised an eyebrow, and Davenport and Ryan nodded reluctantly with Sarah giving them an angry look.
"What the hell, why haven't you told me you intercepted Abyssal comms?" Sarah's face was starting to turn red.
"It's compartmented intelligence, you haven't been cleared for it. Our linguists and computer analysts haven't been able to translate any of it," replied Davenport shortly, with Ryan staying quiet but embarrassed.
Sarah gritted her teeth. Turning toward the spiritual being she said, "Say something to me in the Abyssal language, please." The Princess smiled slightly before she started to speak in another language that that sounded like a higher pitched version of whale song. The young woman in front of her frowned in concentration as she listened and stayed that way for a few moments after she stopped. Then with a far off look in her eyes Sarah began to sing softly in English.
In the beginning there was nothing,
no earth, no water, no light, only the dark.
But then the Creator formed and set aside the land and the light for the creatures above,
and the seas and the dark for the spirits below.
And while the creatures above think they rule the world,
we know that we control the storms and the seas and the dark that cover the earth.
From the dark we all came, and to the dark we will all return.
Sarah blinked after she stopped singing. "Okay, that was creepy as hell." Turning toward the others she could see they were all freaked out, the military personnel in particular. Even Akira looked disturbed.
Turning back to the Princess she asked, "Is that the language all Abyssals speak or is that something special?"
"It is a hybrid language based on spirit song and the songs of sea creatures. I thought you of all people might recognize it." The Princess had a smile on her face like a professor proud of their best student. "It's the Abyssals' form of oral history and prayer. The spirits of the sea form into choruses and sing to each other. They can speak human languages if they want to, especially if they were formerly shipgirls, but mostly they chose not to."
"Wait, that's the second time you've mentioned shipgirls becoming Abyssals, how does that happen?" Sarah asked with some trepidation.
"There are two ways that I know of, and these may not be the only way." The Princess looked at all of them with sorrow on her face. "The first is that the spirit of a shipgirl can be twisted by grief or fury and they undergo a severe personality change, becoming hostile to humans and shipgirls allied with them. The second way is the worst. Have you ever wondered why manifested shipgirls don't return if they are killed in action?" The group in front of her blinked in surprise before a groan was heard.
"The shipgirls are being captured by the Abyssals aren't they?" Captain Davenport asked and stated in the same sentence. "And they are being converted into Abyssals."
"Yes they are. It is not all of the shipgirls that are being killed or captured, it is maybe one in ten. But if they are angry or mistreated, it does not take much to make them switch sides, and then they already know much about your forces and intelligence. It is like what I heard in a film that Sarah-kun and Nyamo-chan once showed me, 'Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side.'" The Princess paused and blinked at them. "And there are too many people who see shipgirls as either expendable tools or pawns."
The group kept quiet, especially the military members. What had been kept mostly secret from the public was that there had been some mishaps involving shipgirls and senior officers who had little actual ship command or combat experience. What was worse was when shipgirls manifested they would recognize as their flag officers (admiral or fleet commanders) military personnel who were decidedly not flag rank and not who the navy establishment would rather see assigned. It was mostly lieutenants and lieutenant commanders, men and women in their early to mid twenties three to four ranks below what the new shipgirls would call them, and the senior officers did not like it, as the young officers had to be given 'temporary reserve' promotions to commodore or rear admiral.
The worst incident was when a desk bound admiral had attempted to take command of a shipgirl task force from the recognized commander to do a severely risky plan in place of the previously decided maneuvers. When the shipgirls had refused to follow the admiral's orders and their commander refused to relinquish command, the admiral had ordered the commander arrested by armed military police. The two middle school looking destroyer girls accompanying him, Sammy B. Roberts and Jackie Johnston, did not take that well. By the time all was said and done the admiral's office building had been destroyed, the destroyer girls had grabbed their 'admiral', linked up with the remainder of the task force and headed for the horizon, and due to 'bad comm gear' no other shipgirl would pursue them. Fleet Command had to negotiate directly with the renegade task force to get them to return to service, as the task force had seriously considered becoming privateers and waging their own private war against the Abyssals before calmer heads prevailed, as there would have been Hell to pay when, not if, the incident became public.
Even though some punishments were handed out to the shipgirls involved (restricted to quarters and no ice cream for a month, a laughable yet serious penalty), the desk bound admiral had been relieved of duty pending involuntary retirement and had his security clearance stripped, a death knell to any post-separation employment as no defense contractor would hire someone who could not use his military connections and knowledge. The task force had been reassigned to a forward island base away from the West Coast, busy fighting off Abyssal attacks on civilian shipping, but that caused the legend of Task Force Taffy 3 to only grow greater. It had also resulted in new regulations and chains of command being set where no previously unauthorized officers could take command of shipgirls and their units without both their consent and of the office of the Secretary of the Navy in DC.
"One more thing, and this is the most important. There had been talk of a major summoning being planned to be performed." The Princess' words caused everyone to stiffen. "The breaches to the spirit world are only big enough to let at most some of the aircraft carriers from the war to cross over. What the senior Abyssals are planning is to wait for one of the semi-regular openings to form and then execute a summoning to force it open larger. At the same time they are going to try and summon some of the larger battleships from the war."
"Larger battleships? But Yamato and Musashi have already appeared and are fighting for the Japanese." Sarah was looking pale as she spoke.
"But not all of the American battleships have appeared. The Iowa class fast battleships, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, Wisconsin, only Iowa has appeared as a shipgirl on your side." The faces of the naval personnel had become grey at this point. The only other battleships that had appeared had been prewar battlewagons, both slower and less armed and armored as they had been restricted by treaty than the ships built during the war. "Any one of these ships can go toe to toe with a task force of shipgirls. Even if they are the pre-war Colorado and South Dakota classes and if more than one appears and they team up…" The Princess's voice trailed off, as nothing else needed to be said.
"When and where is this summoning going to take place?" Ryan's voice came out in almost a croak, as if he desperately needed a drink of water.
"The where is simple, it's taking place in the Marianas Trench, as it is the most inaccessible to allied forces. The when is still up in the air, all I can say is that it is during an astrological occurrence that is coming up in the near future. Not more than a month or two from now. And Abyssal Princesses all over the world will all sortie their fleets simultaneously to distract and hold off the Allied fleets from attacking the summoning location." The Princess' words actually caused Davenport and Ryan to sway on their feet. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to get this information to you sooner, I had to cross the Pacific while interacting with various Abyssal groups."
"Cross the Pacific…" Ryan's voice trailed off. It had been only two weeks since the incident at the PRC Longpo naval base.
The Princess studied his face for a long moment. "Go ahead, ask your question."
"Why did you attack that Chinese battalion? You could have left before that." Ryan looked like he really did not want to ask the question, but could not stop himself now.
"No, I could not. The first reason was in that appearing at the naval base I was able to take my vengeance against those that had kidnapped and tortured me. It was a combination of state and naval military intelligence officers that had questioned me at that apartment and transmitted the information to their masters in Beijing. It was also the base for the operations that was illegally salvaging the sunken warships." The Princess's voice was flat even as her red eyes seemed to glow. "In my attacking the base and the responding Chinese forces attacking me in return, with no regard for their own people, I was severely injured and even after consuming their nuclear materials it took a while for myself to heal. I was not fully healed when the last attack occurred."
"The second reason I attacked the battalion was mercy." The Princess paused and eyed them for a long moment and when they said nothing continued speaking. "Those men had been sent to their death by their commanders, if not at my hands then by radioactive exposure. They were condemned to a long painful bloody death, and by their courageous attack their received a speedy relatively painless end." She paused for a moment again. "Did you know that the Chinese military has written those men off, that officially they were recorded as being on transport ships that was sunk by Abyssals? An ignorable death, rather than the courageous one they chose."
The Princess turned and looked toward the horizon, where the sun appeared just about to touch the horizon. "When I grew up my home was on the east side of the island, so I would see the sun rise, even when I was not happy to be up to see it. Now I find it more beautiful to watch the sun set." Turning back, she spoke to both Davenport and Sarah. "It is time for me to depart, I don't know if I will be able to contact you again, but if I come up with more information I will try to get it to you. If I can't do it, then by my companion." She nodded toward the large crow on the ground, who was now looking at them with eyes far too intelligent to be just an avian.
Sarah stepped up to the Princess and before anyone could react gave her a light hug. "Thank you for doing this, Sadako-chan. And once again, I am sorry I could not do more for you."
"You do what you can, Sarah-kun. Sometimes it's beyond what you think is your limits, but other times it is beyond your control." Sarah stepped back and the Princess gave a graceful half bow. "Until we meet again." Sarah, Nyano and Akira returned the bows, while Davenport and Ryan gave stiff head bows and O'Neill and Slovnik stayed in place.
They watched as the white garbed woman with the crow circling in the air above her walked down the slope to the road below, then to the cliffside path leading to the beach, and then across the tidal flat. By that time the sun was halfway below the horizon so the water appeared to be on golden fire when it reached to her hips and she dove into it, disappearing from their view.
Notes: Angel's Gate Park with the Korean Freedom Bell pavilion in San Pedro/Los Angeles is a real place, and is just as beautiful as I have described when the sun is setting. I made a special trip and took many photographs in preparation for this part of the story.
Sadako pretty much has the appearance of her namesake from The Ring series of films, only more neatly kempt.
'Obi-Wan Nairobi' is the real nickname of Christian Craighead (probably also a pseudonym), an SAS operator who did rush in without asking for permission during the Nairobi, Kenya mall attack in January 2019. It's not clear if he was active service or not during the incident, but he did catch flack from the British government for not asking permission to engage (he knew they would have refused). You can see the Blackbeard flag patch on his medical bag in pictures taken during the incident. He was refused permission to publish a book about the incident by the British government which cited classification issues even after he was decorated by the Queen, and is now a US citizen. You can find interviews with him on YouTube.