She tried hard not to cry, but she couldn’t help it, and the tears flowed from her eyes. She wanted to run away, but she couldn’t. Not while she was in the hands of the descending AS.
“I’m sorry. I’m... fine. I just... I’m a bit disappointed, I suppose,” she said, forcing a smile onto her face. Seeing Sousuke so tortured by her reactions just tightened the icy grip on her heart. “Ahh, this was supposed to be an easy mission, and I let it go completely off the rails. I was useless from start to finish... What an awful birthday.”
Sousuke didn’t say anything, likely forcing back an instinct to make excuses or offer words of encouragement.
He’s faithful. Truly faithful. That’s why I love him, of course... It’s why I want to be with him. But I suppose wanting something to be so doesn’t mean that God will listen, even on Christmas Eve...
Fate. Harris’s final words lingered in her mind. Perhaps this is fate, and my attempts to reject that are what’s throwing everything off inside of me. She felt like she understood, for the first time, the feelings of the people they’d been conveniently dismissing under the label of “terrorists” for so long.
The Arbalest carrying them both neared the ocean surface. They could see the faint lights of an allied helicopter arriving to save them.Pacific Chrysalis
“Uruz-1 to Uruz-2. How are things going? Any progress?”
Mao wasn’t sure how many times Clouseau had asked her that now. A dozen, for sure, at least. I’m working my ass off, you know, she thought resentfully. If I screw up with the vault lock, I could trigger an internal detonator and ruin everything. I need to be careful, but fast. Why can’t he understand how hard this is?
“Dammit. I’m starting to feel like a writer with a looming deadline...” she whispered, then wiped some sweat from her forehead, and resumed tapping on the keyboard.
“What was that?” Clouseau asked.
“Nothing,” she said innocently. “Just executing a virtual protocol QRD. Almost there.”
“You’ve said ‘almost there’ a dozen times tonight,” Clouseau accused her. “The Japanese Coast Guard and SDF have caught on that something’s wrong. We’re out of time. I need precise figures, not ‘almost there’—”
“When I say almost, that’s what I mean!” said Mao, finally losing her temper. “Ten seconds at best! A hundred minutes at worst! Stop jabbering on and buy me time, dammit! You’ve become a real wet blanket since you got your commission, you know!”
“Who wouldn’t, with people so irresponsible serving under them?! I pity Colonel Mardukas and Major Kalinin. And you just—”
“Finally!” Mao proclaimed as something on the display suddenly caught her attention. It was asking whether to send the final signal to disarm the lock, with a “Yes/No/Cancel” prompt. After a moment’s consideration, she selected “Yes” and pressed the enter key.
With a muffled sound, the tightly locked vault door ahead of her slid open, as if it had never been locked at all.
“What is it?” Clouseau wanted to know.
“It’s open.”
There was a moment of silence before he responded, “Understood. I’ll buy you fifteen minutes, so get documenting already.”
Just then, Mao remembered the other person who was supposed to be with them. “How’s Tessa?” she asked. “Is she safe?”
“Sagara got it done,” he responded briefly. “Now hurry.”
“Roger. Out. Okay, you heard the man! It’s a fire sale! Get going!” Mao shouted to the PRT soldiers waiting nearby, before running into the vault herself. She ignored the works of art and jewels housed there and made a beeline straight to the back. In the middle of an otherwise unextraordinary wall, there sat a door; the room they were after lay beyond it. Fortunately, her work on the main door had disarmed the lock here, too.
Mao stepped into the room behind the vault. The space there was as large as a school classroom, full of electronics and medical equipment; examination tables the size of large coffins, with a multitude of sensors surrounding them. Mao knew a lot about electronics herself, but even she couldn’t tell what it was all for. How am I supposed to investigate this? Mao wondered. If Tessa were here, she’d probably be doling out orders by now...
“Lieutenant. Where should we start?” one of the soldiers asked.
After struggling for an answer, Mao just shook her head, and said, “Anywhere! Take as many pictures as you can and carry out everything that’s not nailed down. No need to be gentle. Hack into the casing and yank out the hard drives!”
Even so, she reflected, this was clearly a major score. They could investigate later at their leisure, and what they found should tell them a little about what the enemy was doing... and why they were so determined to find people like Kaname.
After all... Mao thought. Tessa’s birthday was December 24th. Kaname’s birthday was also December 24th. Nationality, history, personality, physical attributes... The two were polar opposites in every respect, yet they had this one thing in common. Was it truly a coincidence that these two people, both possessing powers that defied human knowledge, should be born on the same day?25 December, 0130 Hours (Local Time)Sydney, Australia
The bar was packed with Christmas revelers. Run-DMC’s Christmas in Hollis was playing, and drunk men and women sang, drank, and shouted. A man was sitting in the darkness near the back of the bar, illuminated only by a faint blue light. He was young and attractive, with ash blond hair and bluish gray eyes.
He was listening to a report about the operation in the Sea of Japan through his earpiece receiver. After brushing off a drunk woman’s attempt at making a pass, he took a drink from his glass, and then a large man in a suit sat down across the table from him. The man had long gray hair tied back in a tail, and a quiet way about him. He was said to be in his mid-forties, but he seemed to have prematurely aged, perhaps due to the
