That’s not good... he thought uneasily as the plane began to violently rock in mid-air. The lights flickered, and fires burst into being here and there. He could hear a strange tone coming from the engine, too.
Their altitude continued to drop.
After felling the last man in the cabin, Sousuke looked around him. Tessa was nowhere in sight, and the cockpit was the last place ahead of him. Did they take her to the cargo hold below? he wondered. Or...
A shot hit Sousuke in the back. He gasped from the sudden shock, but could tell that his bulletproof vest had stopped it. He turned around unsteadily, and pointed his gun at the person who had fired at him.
“Whoa, there! Hold your fire, soldier!” Harris was standing at the cabin’s entrance, a high-caliber pistol in one hand. He had Tessa in an arm lock, and was using her skillfully as a shield.
“Sagara-san?!” She looked more surprised than relieved. She must have never expected that he would burst into a plane in flight like this.
“Colonel. I’ve come to get you,” Sousuke said, pointing his gun straight at her. Turbulent winds swirled the open flames in the cabin. The noise and vibrations were getting worse. He could see fire burning outside the windows, too; the engine must have broken down and ignited.
“It’s over,” he said. “Give her to me. The plane is going down; we still have time to evacuate.”
“No.” Harris grinned, beads of sweat forming on his haggard face. “I’m finished either way, so I might as well take her with me.”
“Have you completely lost your mind?”
“I’m perfectly rational!” the man shouted hysterically. “If I return empty-handed, the organization will kill me. If you take me hostage, I’ll end up the same way. You’ll pump me for information, then throw me out, and then the organization will kill me.”
Sousuke scowled, saying nothing.
“But I can at least deny you what you want,” Harris went on. “I can still kill both of you. I just have to run out the clock.”
A bead of sweat rolled down Sousuke’s forehead. This man was serious; he’d made his peace with dying here. Furthermore, the rocking of the plane and the whipping of the wind all around them made it hard to get a clean line on Harris as he used Tessa as a shield.
“Ironic, isn’t it? A sea captain like me, about to die in the air...” There was a hint of black humor in Harris’s tone, behind the anger and despair. “Your Mithril may think they’ve regained the momentum, but that’s all about to end. Amalgam is large and decentralized. They can’t be crushed with force alone. And even in terms of force, they’ve just finished a radical expansion.”
“What did you say?” Sousuke asked.
“Professionals, Sagara Sousuke; not those well-armed small-timers you’ve been facing so far,” Harris taunted. “Amalgam hires mercenaries, too. If not for Mr. Iron’s—Gauron’s—cancer, he would have been their leader. His substitute, Mr. Kalium, was distinctly inferior in ability... but for better or worse, you killed him back in Hong Kong.”
Gauron had cancer? Though surprised by the revelation, Sousuke remained keenly aware of the time. He could hear the tense voice of the de Danaan’s flight control officer in his earpiece:
No time left. This is your last chance. Escape.
“They’re calm and cunning,” Harris said. “They’ll stamp out every one of you. Why don’t you join me in the next world early, so we can watch it play out together?”
“You’re lying,” Sousuke said scornfully.
“Going to shoot me, then?! You might hit her!” Harris continued to mock Sousuke, who was focused on his aim. “You won’t fire because of the fear of what might happen. That’s who you people are—just a sad bunch of wannabe superheroes. You’ve got that annoying air about you.
“But reality is harsh, and the world is cruel. The people on that ship will learn that, too, some day. To reverse fate, to conquer it, you need to take that cruelty for yourself. It’s my organization that can do that! Only Amalgam can end everything!” Harris shouted, spurred on by madness. The fuselage of the plane was starting to make a strange creaking noise. There was a movement in Harris’s right hand. The pistol was pointed at Tessa’s neck.
“Stop—”
That fraction of a second felt like an eternity. Still, the targeting was difficult. The shaking of the plane threw his aim off. And yet, Sousuke fired. With exceeding calm, he fired. The shot hit the wall, sparking as it broke through. Harris, shot in the chest through the wall, pulled the trigger even as he stumbled. Tessa toppled forward. Sousuke couldn’t see from his position if she’d been hit or not.
“Tessa?!” he shouted.
“I... I’m fine!” Tessa’s voice was more vibrant than he expected. She was safe, it seemed. Harris was lying face-down, and completely still.
There was no time left. Sousuke ran up to her, took her by the arm, and hurried immediately to the closest hatch. He turned the emergency lever and yanked it open. Tessa’s hair and skirt went flapping in the wind. “Sagara-san, the parachutes—”
“Don’t have any,” he said, cutting her off. “Sorry.” It would have been impossible for him to jump into the cabin and have a firefight with a heavy parachute on. His options had been to steal one from the plane, or retrace his steps and return to the Arbalest—he’d intended to decide what to do based on the situation. But they didn’t have time for either option now, and the plane would probably break to pieces before it hit the water.
“Do you mean we’re finished?” Tessa wanted to know.
“I have one last
