“But it’s too early,” he’d concluded directly afterwards. “We’re still only sixty minutes into a two-hour movie. They’re gonna get wiped out. I have to save them!”
It would be too dangerous to let this stubborn soldier throw himself into the danger zone, which was why Tessa was finding every excuse she could to buy time. She could sense his irritation rising every time she did so, but... “S-Sorry for the wait. Shall we, then?” Tessa asked as if nothing had happened, but Sailor’s response surprised her.
“We can go later.”
“Er? Is there some problem?” Tessa asked.
He’d been raring to go just minutes ago, but now Sailor’s manner was entirely subdued. His square jaw was twisted in a scowl, and he stared carefully at Tessa. “You might not think it from looking at me, but I’ve got pretty good hearing. I couldn’t make out everything, but I heard a lot. Who were you talking to?”
Tessa gasped.
Sailor, holding his submachine gun in one hand, walked swiftly up to her. “I heard you say something about ‘the Duke.’ You knew his real name, too. How does a maid like you know Mr. Mardukas?”
“Ah, er—”
“When I was an officer of the deck, he saved the ship I was serving on. And me,” Sailor admitted. “We were on maneuvers in the Barents Sea, and started taking on water from an accident and Soviet attacks. It was the British nuclear sub, the Turbulent, that saved us; the Duke was its captain. After things quieted down, my captain—Commander Testarossa—partly out of gratitude, partly out of respect, and partly as a joke, sent him an American-style Turbulent cap.”
Tessa was so shocked by his words that she forgot everything else about their current situation. Sailor used to serve under my late father? she wondered. And Mardukas and my father were friends? Mardukas had never mentioned that in the past...
“I heard that after Mr. Mardukas retired, he joined some civilian shipping company... What’s this all about?” Sailor demanded to know. “Is he on board here? I don’t get it. Are you hiding things from me?!”
“W-well, all girls have to have their share of secrets... ah, please don’t lean in so close. You smell like cigars...” Tessa turned away, wincing, as the angry Sailor bore down on her.
“Don’t change the subject!” he bellowed, sounding absolutely serious. “Who the hell are you?! If you don’t tell me right now, I’ll tie you up and throw you into the boys’ latrine!”
Tessa didn’t even have time to be shaken by the strange coincidence. It was time, she decided, to explain her position and the situation as simply as possible, and try to earn his cooperation. She couldn’t be stuck here, playing some comedy of errors with some old man, while everyone else was out there, struggling. It was completely unbecoming of a commander-in-chief.
Even so... “I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you,” she told him reluctantly.
“I’ll be the judge of that!” Sailor declared. “Now, tell me everything. As fast as you can!”
“Er... the truth is, I’m a captain, like you,” Tessa admitted.
“I’m being serious!”
“See?” she complained. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me...”
“Of course not! Are you a spy with the CIA or something? Trying to steal my glory before I—” Sailor was interrupted midway.
In the dim light of the corridor stood a large man. He was wearing a hooded coat, and a faint light shone from a horizontal slit on his face.
Tessa gasped as the figure began to approach them, silently, step by step. She immediately recognized it as being one of the robot attackers. Had it slipped through Clouseau’s line of defense and made it this far?
“The hell is your problem?” Sailor asked it quizzically. “What’s with the mask? Hey, stay back! I’ve got a gun, see?!” Sailor pointed his submachine gun at it, still unaware that it was loaded with rubber bullets.
“That won’t work! Throw it away!” Tessa screamed, leaping for the gun... but it was too late. Reacting immediately to Sailor’s aggression, the robot stooped over and took aim with its arm-mounted rifle. “Ah—”
It fired. Sailor was lucky that Tessa’s leap had thrown him off-balance, because the three-round burst just missed his head to spark against the wall behind him. “Huh?!” he exclaimed, sounding perplexed. Meanwhile, the enemy’s drive system hummed to life as it stopped firing and charged, its coat billowing behind it.
Tessa interposed herself between Sailor and the enemy. She was betting, based off of the inferences she’d inherited during her resonance with Kaname, that the robot wouldn’t target her.
“Run—” she began to say.
But the Alastor didn’t hesitate to swing its right arm at Tessa, sending her small body flying into the wall. Maybe this was its version of “going easy on her”... but it was still a painful and disabling blow. The impact forced the air out of her lungs. The world around her went black, and she lost all feeling in her body.
She could hear Sailor shouting and firing his gun recklessly. The rubber bullets bounced off the wall and rained down on her where she lay on the floor. “Urgh...” Shaking her swimming head, Tessa sat up, and saw the hand at the end of the enemy’s thick arm holding Sailor by the throat.
“Sailor-san?! Stop! Please, stop!” Tessa stood up and grabbed the robot’s arm, but all she could do was dangle helplessly. No matter how the two of them punched and scratched, their enemy remained unfazed.
“Going to... die...” Sailor wheezed.
“Stop it, please!” she cried again, and it was in that exact moment that the robot relaxed its grip.
“Urgh... guh.” Sailor thrust himself away desperately from the robot’s chest. He and Tessa both swayed and fell on their backsides, but the enemy didn’t attack again.
“What...?” she breathed, while Sailor coughed
