“T-To capture the girl and escape,” Harris rushed to say. “If you’ll come and retrieve me. Please.”
“Can you do it?” Mr. Gold questioned.
“Yes,” Harris replied. There was no other answer he could give. “I’d also like permission to use the machines we loaded into the pantry the other day. If I can use those to distract the enemy, it will increase my chances of success.” A brief silence followed. To Harris, it felt like forever.
“Very well,” Mr. Gold finally allowed. “This kind of situation is exactly the reason we included them. As for the vault’s contents... there’s nothing to be done. I’ll explain things to the other executives; you focus on your job. I’ll inform you of the process for retrieval later.”
“Th-Thank you. I’ll make it work, I promise. Please know you have my undying loyalty—”
“I know. Hang up already.” The channel was closed before Harris could even respond.Same TimeframeSomewhere in East Asia
After Harris’s transmission ended, the various executive holograms attending the conference voiced their disapproval.
“What an absolute fool.”
“Doesn’t he realize the situation he’s put us in?”
“We can safely assume that the message was intercepted.”
“What a useful subordinate he’s been.”
Each of these statements was rife with sarcasm.
Mr. Gold just snorted, his expression unchanging. “I won’t deny that Harris is a fool,” he admitted. “But we can’t be certain that it was the plan that was flawed.”
“Nonsense. It’s clear we should have just abducted her while she was going about her daily life. It’s this roundabout nonsense that—”
“I agree. This has entered the realm of the absurd.”
“Why didn’t you report this plan to us, anyway? This could be taken as a breach of trust, you know.”
“If I’d told you, you’d have been against it,” Mr. Gold said with feigned innocence. “Leaving the girl at large gains us nothing. Don’t you think that the recent incident with Mr. Iron proved that?”
“Iron, eh? That damned traitor...”
“He basically killed Mr. Kalium.”
“That’s right. And there’s something else about this that doesn’t add up: why is it that out of everyone in Mithril, only the West Pacific Battle Group had such strong suspicions about that ship? Even Mithril’s intelligence division, led by General Amit, judged the Pacific Chrysalis a safe haven. Yet the Tuatha de Danaan managed to gain confirmation through their own solo investigation—with sufficient confidence to get them to greenlight a plan as bold as this. How did this happen? The most plausible explanation would be that someone leaked the information directly to them.”
One of them clicked his tongue. “Iron, I bet. Sounds like something he’d do.”
“He did try to burn down Hong Kong for the fun of it,” someone agreed.
The executives all shifted restlessly in their seats, perhaps imagining the thin, mocking smile of the dead man, Gauron. In retrospect, his Amalgam executive codename had taken on a bitterly ironic twist. Iron couldn’t mix with mercury—in other words, it couldn’t be part of an amalgam.
“So? What do we do now? Those Mithril bandits are going to get away with every scrap of information on that ship.”
“True. The facility doesn’t have much value to us anymore, but... I don’t like the idea of just letting them have their way.”
“You make it sound like you’ve already taken measures.”
“I’ve dispatched three flying craft to the area. Each has a Leviathan inside. They should arrive soon.”
“Going to sink the ship?”
“Of course.”
“What about Chidori Kaname? It’s all for nothing if she dies,” one said, and then they heard a chuckle. The hologram executives that ringed the round table all turned to look at one seat. All the seat contained were white letters that read “audio only.”
“What’s so funny, Mr. Silver?”
“She won’t die,” came the cool, elegant voice of a young man.
“How can you be so sure? Because she’s a Whispered, like you?”
“I’m afraid that’s not one of our powers, no. Let’s just call it... yes, a gut feeling,” Mr. Silver replied.
“Hmm...”
“Still... we do have those machines stored away in the ship’s pantry. Letting Harris activate them will make his job much easier.”
“The anti-personnel autonomous weapons?”
“Yes, twelve Alastors. They’ve been programmed to find, protect, and escape with Chidori Kaname.”
“You think those killer dolls are capable of such high-level judgments?”
“I wouldn’t call it high-level,” Mr. Silver denied. “Their ROEs are excessively simple.”
“What are their ROEs?”
“Why don’t you ask Mr. Gold?” The young man’s voice had a teasing tone, though there was a sliver of ice behind it.
The group turned back to Mr. Gold, who responded, indifferently, “‘Eliminate all obstacles. Kill anyone who gets in your way.’ That’s all.”24 December, 2136 Hours (Japan Standard Time)Pacific Chrysalis, Sea near Izu Archipelago
By the time Tessa had regained consciousness, the shooting had stopped. They must have completely shaken them off. She felt a little woozy from the blow to the head, but insisted she could walk on her own, and continued on, pulled along by the ‘rogue element.’ Unfortunately, she seemed to have dropped her radio in the earlier tumult.
While stumbling along, she managed to inquire as to the man’s identity. His name was Sailor, he was an American, and he had come here with one of his subordinates for Christmas break.
“So, honey, what’s your name?” Sailor asked, looking both ways cautiously before turning a dark corner.
“Er... Mantissa. Teletha Mantissa,” she said, giving him a fake name she used from time to time.
“I see. Well, honey, stay close behind me. Don’t worry, I’m a veteran. Those terrorists don’t— hey, where are you going?” Tessa had begun striding in the other direction, but Sailor grabbed her by the back of the collar.
“W-Well, we had made our introductions, so I thought we might part ways here...” Tessa found it impossible to pry the large man off of her. She thought about calling out, but for some reason, this was one time when there were no allied footsteps drawing near. What she needed to do was get away and report the man’s location to their teams.
“Don’t be stupid!”
