Chapter Thirteen - Saturday II - Point Of No Return

Chapter Thirteen

‘Another morning briefing? You do realise that today’s Saturday?’ one of the women asked, her sparkly green eyes glaring across the bedroom in condemnation.

‘And? If one particular Sensei wasn’t already wiped out and fast asleep by the time we got back last night then I could have maybe considered doing it then,’ the woman with glasses and an orange streak in her hair blankly replied.

‘Ah. Touché.’

Renka momentarily issued a smug smile in response. ‘Sooo, there’s not really much need to recap what we did yesterday, but Kasumi and I did find some interesting info while we cleaned up the scene,’ she revealed, briefly resting her head against the left shoulder of the black and pink-haired woman sat beside her. ‘While we didn’t find out much to do with what was being transported and received, we did find out where it was destined to be delivered.

‘Supposedly, our good friends, CSS, currently have an improvised operation set up in the east. The interesting thing about it being that I’m almost certain it’s a disused aircraft hangar, given that an airfield was designated as the drop-off location for the guys.’

‘Right, and what exactly are we(?) expecting to find there?’ the black and purple-haired member of the group enquired.

‘A good question you ask, my vicious comrade. I’m not exactly sure what to expect, aside from fierce resistance.’

‘Um, what?’ Tsubaki interjected, casting a derisive glare in the captain’s direction.

‘Wellll, we’ll almost definitely find a serviceable exfil point, unless it’s overgrown with weeds and grass or something. We might also find ourselves a base of operations as well, so we don’t have to constantly hop between inns and hotels each day; although the comfy setups are nice these bookings aren’t for free. If there’s one thing we got out of yesterday, besides the satisfaction of having rescued the turtle hatchlings and reclaiming the beach, it’s a taste of what kind of organisation CSS really is. Clearly, there’s no concern for the general populace or the environment which they’re operating in and evidently, they’re not lacking in resources either.

‘I don’t know about you, but I think at least taking them down a peg would be a useful development for the security of our nation, not that I’m proposing we take them on, to become heroes or whatever.’ Though that does sort of fit the bill for a military officer gone rogue, I guess. ‘Anywho, let’s get into the specifics of how we approach this because if we’re too loud or keep the targets alive, we’ll probably have to deal with law enforcement and/ or reinforcements in pretty short order.

‘The basic plan that I have in mind is to approach and recon the target site, either sending in Hikari or that quadcopter that she gifted you yesterday as a scout. Does it have live video feed capability?’

Keep the targets alive?? Um, what? ‘It does. I looked up its spec and it’s also got some automated features as well.’ The doctor’s voice lost a fair amount of its positive tone as she continued. ‘It’ll definitely be able to do what you’re asking, but the noise might limit how long it can stick around for. That and, like the radios, we don’t have a charger for its battery and they only had one spare, which was depleted. It does have a return home feature, for if/ when the battery is about to run out, so we don’t need to worry about it crash–landing in an unfortunate place at least.’

‘Good; the last thing we’d need is having to spend ages cleaning up spilled blood from the area because somebody couldn’t help herself while investigating.’

‘Come on! I didn’t attack anybody yesterday when I snooped around their installation,’ Hikari protested, with an upset expression.

‘True, but if something went awry, like, say, they just so happened to hear your footsteps, I can probably guess how that’d end up. At least in the drone’s case, it won’t have the temptation to fight back if the enemy gets jumpy,’ Renka scorned.

Heh; she’s raised her hand as if this is a schoolroom. ‘Yes, Sensei?’

‘Earlier, you mentioned something like we’re not keeping the targets alive?’ she asked with a sheepish tone.

The captain bluntly lectured, ‘Um, yeah. For the past two days, there was incentive to send the people off for information-gathering purposes. On this occasion, we’re the only ones collecting the information and that’s where the flow of information stops ideally, unless we can pump out some misinformation afterwards. That and I don’t know about you, but I’m not particularly in the mood to be babysitting captured mercenaries, gangsters, private security contractors or whatever. I’m guessing you haven’t figured it out yet, but, as I’m sure Hikari and Kasumi here can attest to, we’re now very much living in a world of kill or be killed and intelligence or counterintelligence is a key factor in warfare.’

Surely that can’t be correct, but both Hikari and Kasumi are nodding. At least the one with pink highlights is sort of trying to be sympathetic with her expression, though her eyes give me chills and betray her a little. Once again, I’m outnumbered by three to one, so I guess my role is to tag along and try to instil some form of humanity into this group’s actions… ‘Fine, fine; I get it,’ Tsubaki meekly conceded.

‘Great, with that out of the way, are there any more questions?’ Renka gleefully asked. Three heads shaking in almost perfect unison; nice. ‘Well then, it seems today’s operation is ready to set into motion. I guess that quadcopter’s camera won’t function too well at night, so we’ll be hitting them in the daytime. It’s a good thing the sun’s out and it hasn’t rained for a few days as far as I can tell; we can set down in the nearby grass and study our target from there.’

‘Good call on the scheduling; it’s been a few days since I’ve completed my regular training routine. How about we all use the morning to brush up on our physical condition and then head for the target during the height of the afternoon or at sunset?’ Hikari asked, folding one arm over the opposite elbow, mimicking a static shoulder stretch, met with accepting nods from the others.

❀

I guess the rotating beam of light provided by that lighthouse means that we’re close… ‘We’re advancing on foot, right? Even if it’s very similar to the trucks they had yesterday, this thing’s diesel engine would announce to everybody that somebody’s approaching,’ the driver of the grey pickup truck asked, turning to face Renka as she slowed the Hilux to strolling pace.

‘Right you are, let’s hope they don’t have any snipers over there. With the daylight and good weather, the only place anybody could hide is in the grass really.’

After the quartet had disembarked from the vehicle and reconvened at its tailgate, Renka quizzed, ‘So, we’re most likely going lethal this time. If you’d rather not, then please tell me now; I can cover for you or something. It may be an inevitability for me and the everyday for Hikari, but asking you to do the same as us does make me a bit nervous. You sure you wanna do this?’ her tone tentative, as she peered at Kasumi.

‘I’ve not really got anything to lose, other than my freedom, perhaps. I’m fine to do what’s needed, so long as you’re sure guilt won’t get to you later and you’re willing to accept responsibility if anything goes wrong.’

‘Well, unless something or somebody kills me, I don’t plan on making you ever feel like I’m not completely in your corner,’ the captain replied, smiling warmly. ‘Sooo; what’s your poison?’

‘Latex.’

‘Huh?’ Renka retorted, her brows furrowed.

‘A sap which contains antiarin; a common toxin used on arrows. I’ll explain it more later, if you’re interested. It has a fast-acting ingredient which attacks the nervous system, paralysing and soon after, causing cardiac arrest of the target. In other words, you'll die within minutes if you get directly hit anywhere by an arrow tipped with it as the poison.’

‘Well, I suppose that clears you of having to clean up blood in the aftermath then,’ Renka jested, as she slung the straps of her backpack over her shoulders. ‘Alright, are we ready to mobilise?’ Heh; Sensei’s still got that sheepish look, as if she didn’t hear the occasional rattle of gunfire and see the various sections of the main road that brought us here that looked like a warzone had ripped them apart. ‘Keep your senses sharp, ladies; if they’re even mildly competent, they’ll likely have set up some perimeter defences.’

After a careful advance through one of the fields which lined the single tarmac strip, the group of women came to a halt. ‘A couple hundred metres out should be fine; less than a minute’s worth of running if we need to respond quickly. I do have one concern though; it looks like there aren’t any openings and I’m almost certain I see a currently–vacant sniper’s nest constructed on the roof of the building.’ After turning to Hikari and her eyes lighting up in response, Renka advised, ‘Looks like you’ll have a role to play after all. Try not to kill anybody until we arrive as assistance. I don’t doubt that you could viciously slaughter everybody as if they were helpless souls stuck in a cage with an irritated tiger, but it’ll be cleaner affair if we all struck together.’

While three of the women lowered to a prone position in the grass, the black and purple-haired member of the group traversed the runway, with a mini flying accompaniment overhead. ‘And there she goes; completely out of sight. It looks like she’s getting a better grip on how to manage that ability of hers, given that she disappeared the quadcopter at the same time,’ the doctor quietly commented, as her eyes drifted back toward her phone screen.

The huge front door’s closed and there’s nothing on this side either. Maybe there’s a back door?...

Nope; that’s also closed…

Of course, there’s no door on this last side either, though I think I’ve figured out how they got onto the roof of this place...

Shit. Hikari quickly backpedalled and the quadcopter also swiftly retreated in kind. One target leaving the building and heading for the ladder. What am I thinking? With the door having just made a sound, now’s the best time to escort my little flying buddy here inside.

After a quick scamper, to the rear of the large metal building, Hikari quietly and gently eased the door forward, before quickly swinging it. Let’s just say that a gust of wind blew it while it was unlatched or something, because that long, drawn-out squeal from the hinge will definitely bring somebody here.

‘So, we’re in.’ Tsubaki remarked casually, her voice evidently distracted. ‘I see four straight away; no idea how those two are working on laptops without ethernet cables. I wouldn’t expect a place like this to be wi-fi enabled. Anyway; we have one more, over in the corner, which takes the total to eight, including the one which exited. Ah, and there’s an eighth, though it looks like he’s about to head outside as well.

‘Um, Hikari, could we get your disappearing help?’

‘Huh?’

‘The marksman; he’s in the nest an—, fuck!’

A crack sharply ruptured the relative quiet of the airfield, before a cloud of dirt launched into the air, within a few metres of the women’s faces, an instant before they disappeared from view.

‘Yeah, you’re free to engage the enemies,’ Renka advised, as she hopped to her feet and collected her SMG.

‘I guess I’ll pick off the pairs first and leave the other four for you girls,’ Hikari responded, retrieving a small dark grey blade from a compact holster on her right wrist, as she ducked and scrambled across the dimly-lit space, underneath the plane which sat in the centre. Where are you all going; the party is right here, Hikari thought, as she plunged the small blade into the neck of one man while he hurriedly strapped on an armour vest.

His partner flinched while picking up his HiPer pistol, eyes wide, in response to the trail of blood that followed the invisible blade as it retreated from the neck of a man who choked on his own blood while attempting to force a pained yelp.

Amid the momentary pause, the man stumbled, wrongfooted by a low kick against his left ankle, closely followed by the same small metal tool drilling perilously into his forehead.

‘Ah, I guess the cavalry has arrived,’ there’s only one gun that I’ve heard around here that can propel ammo that quietly.

Lucky guess paid off, thankfully. ‘The marksman is down, fifty metres out and closing. Um, Hikari, if you don’t mind, it’d be nice if we could see our weapons,’ Renka advised and requested, as she continued to advance on the hangar and then peer through the AEMS sight of her freshly-revealed MP5SD. ‘Thanks!’ It’s your lucky day; you get to be the one that we keep alive, to explain protocols and operating mechanisms to us.

A single sharp clack preceded the man stood afront the hangar falling to the ground, betrayed by a lower leg which received a pair of whizzing bullets. He grimaced and attempted to crawl for the 433 assault rifle which recently clattered against the paving nearby, but as his fingertips reached the grip of the weapon, a forceful boot stamp onto his back pinned his body firmly to the floor and forced a pained groan.

‘I’ll deal with the other four, if Hikari hasn’t already dealt with them,’ a calm voice from beside the captain advised.

‘Understood.’

‘They’re watching that front door, so, maybe they need a distraction from inside?’

‘Oooo; look who’s getting into the tactical operation spirit!’ Hikari teased, as she skittered across the hangar floor. A kick to the chest should stir things up enough for the pink one...

After taking care to keep her footwork quick and light, she arrived beside the quartet of armed and armoured men and with an elegantly raised leg, almost knocked one of the men over onto his side with a sharp and sudden impact.

‘Now, Kasumi!’

One half of the hangar’s front door quickly rolled open, creating a gap wide enough for two armed women to easily slip through.

In almost no time, an arrow flashed through the dusky atmosphere and embedded itself into an arm of one of the four men.

His limbs stilled within five or so seconds and he involuntarily fell to the floor, visibly devoid of control. Quiet temporarily descended on the space and after a short delay, he violently convulsed on the floor, drawing the terrified stares of almost all eyes in the hangar.

With little hesitation, the woman with rose-coloured hair highlights rested another arrow atop her left hand and its tail, in her right, against the bowstring. Aiming almost instantly, she sent another arrow hurtling through the space and into the neck of a second man.

Uwah; that poison is no joke then, I guess I should retreat and hope she doesn’t see me and feel the itch to get revenge for the night that we met.

‘Fuck! Where are they coming from!? Take cover and summon backup!’ One of the men ordered, as he scrambled towards a table, covered with laptops and phones.

Yeah; no. Captain doesn’t want any info leaks, so… Gonna have to be fast, if I don’t want to get shot with a poison arrow though…

Following a short dash, Hikari lunged and sent one of the remaining men tumbling forward.

Right, well, I guess you’re the last target then, Kasumi assessed, as she took aim at a man who fumbled with the screen of a phone collected from the table.

As the phone rose, another arrow rapidly soared across the gloomy space and embedded itself in one of the man’s thighs, while the crack of a man’s head being smashed against the floor could also be heard.

‘Clear?’

‘Clear!’

‘The live feed suggests the guy on the rooftop isn’t moving, so, we’re clear, I guess?’

‘More or less clear here, you should probably zip-tie this one though, Captain; he might still be useful. His head’s a bit smashed-in, but I’m pretty sure he’s still alive.’

‘You can stop hiding now; they’ve all been taken care of, right?’

As the respondent wildly flitted through the hangar space, ‘You can lower your bow and arrow now. They’ve all been taken care of, right?’

Ugh; this must be what it’s like babysitting a pair of childish siblings who endlessly squabble. ‘That’s enough of that, you two,’ a mildly–irritated voice interjected, as it passed through the front door, silencing the irritated grumbles within the hangar.

‘Ooo, well; isn’t that convenient!?’ Renka exclaimed, with a bright smile and wide eyes, as her view fixed on the large aircraft sitting and occupying most of the hangar space before her. A C130! It looks way older than any of us, so it’s probably not a J, but it’s practically a godsend to find one here, given that they’re still in service in many countries, including the US and UK, if I remember correctly.

‘Huh?’ Both women stared at the freshly-appeared captain.

Heh; glad to see that you’re both on the same page. Equally confused, but on the same wavelength at least. ‘I’ll explain it once we’re done with the cleaning up. Um, Sensei, can you send your little friend to check out the roof for me? Probably best that I start from up there and I don’t want any surprises.’

❀

‘So, what do you think? Is it what you hoped it would be?’

‘As a temporary headquarters and base of operations, it’s near perfect, so, yeah,’ Renka peppily replied. ‘Sensei; you complained about the morning briefing, so how about we debrief while watching the sunset on the rooftop? Judging by the fact that you’re still standing I’m guessing you’re not too tired for once, especially seeing as you had no cleaning or protecting to do,’ Renka suggested, with an intimidating glare and wry smile.

The quartet climbed the ladder at the side of the large, metal building one after the other and sat down, with legs dangling over the edge of the sloped rooftop.

‘So, it faces south west?’ the doctor quizzed.

‘Yeah, but it does have a fairly good view of the sea from the other end of the roof though; I imagine it’d be a nice place to watch the sunrise from, right, dear Kasumi?’ Renka asked, turning, to gaze directly into her greyish-blue eyes.

‘Yes.’

Ugh, would it kill you to work with me here? Ever the ray of sunshine you are, I see… ‘Sooo, what do you gals think of the hangar? Be honest with me.’

‘Well, aside from the limited running water, heating and there being no internet connectivity, it’s great,’ Tsubaki sarcastically replied.

‘They were at least kind enough to install living quarters and a solar-powered generator and it’s a high-capacity model that can run high–amp appliances too. I think we all could have done with there being a mirror though,’ Hikari chimed in.

‘Why are you so upbeat about this?’

‘Why are you so gloomy? Okay, yeah; it’s not a regular home, but it’s a good base to work from, right? We could use a nearby gym or an Onsen for sanitation; they’re practically everywhere on this island. If it’s internet that you’re missing, then maybe we can face off against whoever’s taken control of the telecoms infrastructure in the area...’

‘Pfft, wouldn’t that be fun,’ Renka smirked.

‘What’s so funny, Cap?’

‘Sorry, sorry, it’s just amusing to see you so enthusiastic about turning this into a home, especially when it’s only a temporary solution.’

‘Um, what do you mean?’ Hikari quizzed, her voice heavy with suspicion.

‘You remember when I was practically jumping for joy earlier? Well, that huge plane down there is a short take-off and landing (STOL) military transport. Yes, it’s a twentieth-century relic, but even in the 1960s, she could carry up to nineteen tonnes of payload for a little bit less than two thousand clicks.

‘There’s good news and bad news, however.

‘The bad news; she’s missing two of her four engines.

‘The good news; from a quick inspection, her flight deck, fuselage, wings and other running gear systems appear to be in good shape. I’ll need to pull up a lot of panels to check the electronics and fuel infrastructure though…

‘Lord knows where we’d find two suitable turboprop engines though; if I remember correctly, they were purpose–built for the C-130…’ Renka concluded, with her voice turning wayward and distracted.

‘Heh; you say that as if you could install them if we somehow did get them?’

‘It’d maybe take me a few days, but yeah, I could probably do it. Like I said, I majored in engineering and the development of mechanical systems, which includes aviation and aerospace to an extent. I’ll probably need a manual or two and some more tools, but it’s doable.’

‘Hmm, I might know somebody who can help us with finding the missing parts and tools,’ Hikari proposed.

‘Oh ho? Is that right?’ Renka playfully goaded, with an intrigued glare. ‘In any case, we’ll have to come back to it, because we need to figure out how to secure this place when we’re not around, unless somebody wants to volunteer to be a guard?’

After a brief period of silence, where the other three women shook their heads, ‘Yeah; I didn’t think so. Speaking of developing mechanical systems, maybe we could build a robot that defends the place while we’re away? We’d have to steal an AI from somew—’

‘Hold it right there, Cap, I think Tsubaki here might have something of interest,’ Hikari enthusiastically suggested.

That’s no excuse to stroke my arm. The doctor’s green eyes instantly fixed her with a condemning glare. Why did I tell you anything?

‘What is she talking about, Sensei? Would you care to share with the rest of the class?’

‘Yes, Sensei, please do,’ Hikari teased.

‘It was not designed to be a military technology though and quite frankly, I don’t want it being turned into a killing machine.’

‘You say killing machine, but what if I told you it may prevent many more deaths if placed in the right hands?’

‘Seriously? That’s the rationale you’re going with?’

‘Welll, we could vote on a resolution to compel you to reveal what you’re hiding,’ Renka advised, intensely staring at the doctor. Give up, Sensei; you’re bordering on trembling.

The doctor delayed her outward response. The one with black and pink hair will probably side with you as well. My only way out would be to throw myself off this roof and hope for a quick death and that would just be a waste. ‘Ugh, fine! I’ve been working on an AI project for the past almost five years or so, in my free time. It’s an advanced robotics control program, which can perform tasks and navigate its way across land, sea and air. I say perform tasks; at the moment it only has interactions similar to humans in terms of transporting things and interacting with the environment as it dynamically changes.’

‘So, all we would need to do is teach it how to use weapons?’ Kasumi enquired.

I knew it; three versus one. ‘I guess so?’

‘Awesome, I’ll start drawing up blueprints tonight, then,’ Renka gleefully concluded. ‘With all of the important stuff related to the hangar out of the way, it’s probably a good time to present our haul of information. The last survivor was kind enough to unlock one of the laptops and help us change its password, so we got a decent haul from it, or at least we will, once we figure out how to access the encrypted lockers that have been set up. Maybe you could take a look at them, Sensei?’

‘When we have some free time, maybe; it would be a fun challenge, I guess.’

‘We did get some info from the phones, confirming who our enemies were and we also changed a few of their unlocks, so that we can spoof their communications for a little while. I’m not sure how well it’ll work, but it should keep them off our tails for now,’ Kasumi informed. ‘Also, we found out that those aquatic drones were actually development test models, testing out a long-range remote-control system, the marine robotics system and also the materials which the robot was built from, which I guess explains in part why they were interested in Aki and Saki’s village.’

Shit; I hope the people from the section did comms sweeps on the cargo before hauling it in, otherwise, I can probably expect to be erased by my own organisation in the near future.

‘Is that all we’ve got?’ Tsubaki asked, despair lingering in her voice.

‘Yep; the majority of it’s encrypted, so we really are counting on you, Sensei.’

The scene fell quiet and the crashing of the nearby waves against the rocky shores took over as the primary source of noise as the sun bordered on totally disappearing from view in the hills.

‘Well, I guess that’s all for today, then. I’m gonna stay up here and clean out that G3 that almost killed us earlier, so don’t feel like you have to stick around up here.’

Without hesitation, Tsubaki swivelled and hauled herself to her feet, while the black and purple-haired woman swiftly and smoothly hopped up from her perch, initially using her hands for propulsion.

‘You’re staying then, I’m guessing?’

‘Until the stars come into view, yes. I’m guessing you’re now cleaning that thing out because you messed with it earlier?’

‘Yeah; you got me. Trying to get Sensei to cast her field onto us would have taken too long and the green glow would have caused further issues, so I figured I’d take the risk and see what would happen if I beat him to pulling the trigger. I honestly hope I don’t have to do that again, because if it went wrong, well, I don’t need to spell out what could have happened.

‘Moving on, to more intriguing things, would you care to explain to me where you got that, um, what was it? Antiaris?’

‘Yep; that’s it.’

I’m still not used to seeing you smile but it’s actually pretty cute. It sounds weird to even think it, when the short hair and generally cold look arouse me in other ways, but it’s definitely true right now.

❀

Sitting cross-legged atop her bed, directly facing the other bed little more than two metres across the room, an amethyst-eyed woman interrogated, as she removed her large hoop earrings. ‘So, you’re effectively going back to where we started and working late into the night on a laptop?’

‘Yep; right back to the start, with the annoying black and purple-haired woman interrupting me while I try to make progress as well. A perfect replay, almost; all that’s missing is the bit where you request medical attention,’ the green-eyed woman replied, maintaining her focus on the laptop screen in her lap as she quickly and quietly tapped away at the keys.

‘I can make a request now, if it’ll make you feel any better?’ Hikari offered, with a teasing smile.

Here we go… ‘Please don’t; that’s not what I need right now.’

‘Are you sure? It could be fun.’

Um, why are you coming my way??

‘I’m sorry; who invited you to my bed?’

‘You did,’ Hikari replied, neatly taking up a similar sitting posture on the doctor’s bed, a short distance from the doctor’s feet like a domestic cat.

Ugh. I am not playing your game, so you’ll have to make do with the silent treatment.

…

I should have known you wouldn’t just give up and back away.

After pulling the laptop’s upper lid toward her, the doctor flinched. ‘Eep! Why are you so close?!?’ On all fours, between my legs with your face right behind the notebook screen. Quickly; find some tangent before this gets weird. ‘Ah, I forgot to ask earlier, but that thing sheathed on your right wrist; is that new? I’m pretty sure I’ve not seen it before.’

Hikari paused and looked down briefly. ‘Oh, the push dagger? No, it’s not particularly new, I just don’t use is as often as my other blades. You know how it is though; gotta mix things up every so often and keep things fresh; something that you should do a bit more of, I think,’ Hikari suggested, gazing longingly at the doctor.

‘Things are already mixed–up far more than enough, thank you very much. Also, could you please stop creeping towards me.’ Why didn’t I kick you away while I had the chance? If I move now, you’ll probably fight me, but if I don’t…

Fidgeting slightly, the doctor’s mind continued to wander away from the screen in front of her. I hate it when you do this, partly because it highlights just how weak I can be against you in close proximity. Funny how the murderous element of you almost fades into complete irrelevance when you look at me so wistfully. You always do this and I still haven’t had any time to properly process how I feel about you. Letting you reach all the way to where my legs meet would be an unmitigated disaster for both of us, don’t you get it??

‘Please could you do this some other time? I really want to get at least something from this laptop before tomorrow, if possible.’

‘It’s a date!’ Hikari accepted, with a playful smile as she retreated to her original place nearer to the foot of Tsubaki’s bed.

Crisis averted, for now… Thank goodness; my concentration is just about hanging on but my heartbeat’s gone unnecessarily wild and I’m pretty sure I’ve started sweating as well.

After setting herself back down on her own bed, picking up her phone and inspecting its screen, the lily-wearing woman internally remarked, with a small trace of a mischievous grin. Heh. It’s not like I had any intention of making it all the way up your thighs; I just wanted to wake you up a bit and remind you that the clock is still ticking. Besides; all you had to do was ask, if you wanted me to stop…