Dancing Very Merry Christmas

by Shouji Gatou

  It was like a scene from a crime drama. Mao was the detective, and Harris was the culprit—which would make Kaname a random audience member struggling to follow along. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  Mao shrugged in response. “I think whatever’s in this vault is a lot more valuable than smuggled goods,” she said. “Probably something important to Amalgam...”

  Harris’s shoulders tensed up.

  “See? Written all over his face.” Mao grinned. “And then there’s the way you looked at Kaname earlier... You don’t really think of her as one of your ‘precious passengers,’ do you? It’s almost as if you knew about her ahead of time.”

  Harris said nothing, his face now white as a sheet. His fingers and jaw were trembling, his eyes were opened wide, and sweat had begun to bead across his forehead and neck.

  “I think you know by now, don’t you? Who we are...” Sousuke, who had previously been silent, now spoke up solemnly. “Sunan, Ariake, Perio, Hong Kong... You’ve always had us playing defense, but we’ve finally regained the initiative. Accept that, and cooperate.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anything. This is all ludicrous,” Harris whispered, after emitting a deep sigh. Then, a split-second later, he was moving, throwing himself at the unsuspecting Kaname. He was holding a small knife in one hand, which he must have smuggled in under his uniform hat.

  Frozen, Kaname felt her mouth drop open. He reached for her collar, but Sousuke was faster. He knocked Harris’s arm aside with his shotgun’s stock, then plunged a fist hard into his exposed solar plexus. Harris let out a grunt, then collapsed to his knees.

  Sousuke then kicked him in the face, which sent him into a crumpled, coughing heap. “This is who this man really is,” he declared. On his hands and knees, Harris let out a whine. Even Kaname, who was always kicking Sousuke around, was stunned by this barbaric treatment.

  “Boy, what a sad way to show your true colors,” Mao lamented with a shrug. “Thought you could take her hostage, huh? Too bad. Guess the jig is up on your gentleman act.”

  “That’s right,” Sousuke agreed. “It was your actions that were truly ludicrous.”

  “Ugh...” Harris groaned.

  Sousuke knelt down in front of the man. “I can imagine why you would want to get my school involved. You thought you could use our students as hostages to force Chidori to do something, correct?” He must have been right, because Harris gritted his teeth and glared at his captors.

  “But remember this...” Sousuke grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in close, pointing the knife he’d stolen at Harris’s neck. “If you lay one finger on anyone from this school—not just Chidori—I will personally skin you alive and watch you bleed to death,” he promised solemnly. “Do you understand? I will subject you to pain and despair beyond your wildest imaginings. Don’t assume Mithril is some naive band of do-gooders. We know exactly how you people do things, too. Don’t forget that.”

  Harris remained silent, his face ashen from fear.

  Perhaps detecting the deadly aura radiating from Sousuke, Tessa squirmed nervously. “Sagara-san is rather frightening...” she observed.

  “He is being weirdly intense...” Kaname agreed.

  “Hunger must be making him cranky...” Tessa suggested in response.

  “Yeah, he does seem a little pissier than usual...”

  The whispered conversation was occurring right next to Sousuke, and his eyebrow twitched as he overheard them. “Chidori,” he said at last. “I am currently attempting to intimidate a hostage. Would you please be quiet?”

  His request caused Kaname to snap again. Puffing out her cheeks, she said, “Why am I the only one you chewed out?”

  “What? W-well, I—”

  “She’s exactly right! You must discard your biases and scold me as well!” Tessa interrupted.

  “Why should I—”

  “You’re always on eggshells around me, Sagara-san!”

  “That’s not the problem, is it?!” Sousuke demanded in exasperation.

  “It is the problem!” Tessa insisted. “You always do it! Why am I always the one left out?”

  “You know, Tessa—”

  “Would you two please—”

  As the three-way yelling started up again, Mao pulled a handgun from under her vest, then silently fired it into the ceiling. There was an ear-splitting clang, and dust sprinkled down on them. Silence reigned again as Mao returned her handgun to its holster and cleared her throat. “Look, you three. This conversation is going nowhere.”

  “Right...” Kaname and Tessa responded in unison.

  “Anyway, Captain,” Mao continued. “Please open the safe.”

  “What? But I can’t open it...” Tessa protested.

  “Not you, Captain! The other captain!” Mao fumed.

  Tessa just tapped her fingers together meekly. “Oh... I was only... joking.”

  “Sheesh...” Mao muttered, mussing up her hair to express her frustration. Kaname and Tessa decided to move a little distance away, to avoid another deflation of the needed intensity, as she and Sousuke resumed their attempts to intimidate Harris.

  “Anyway, open it, please,” Mao said as she dragged Captain Harris over and sat him in front of the vault’s console.

  “I... I can’t. I can’t open it,” Harris said, looking flustered as he read the screen display.

  “Come on,” Mao scoffed. “Cut out the stall tactics, would you?”

  “It’s true, though!” Harris insisted. “The safe’s electromagnetic lock has already switched to emergency mode. It won’t accept my passcode.”

  “Oh, really? I guess I’ll have to drag it out of you, then.” Mao pointed her submachine gun’s muzzle at Harris’s right knee. “I won’t kill you right away; we’ll start with a little warning shot. Right, Sousuke?”

  “That does seem appropriate,” he agreed.

  “I’ll count to three.”

  Harris panicked and cowered. “P-Please believe me. I’m not—”

  “One.”

  “I’m not lying. Once it’s in this mode—”

  “Two.”

  “L-Listen to me! There’s nothing I can do to open—”

  “Three.”

  As Harris desperately protested, Mao fired three muffled gunshots at his knee. Harris let out a falsetto scream and fell onto his backside. “Ahhh! Ah! Ahh! Did you shoot me?! You stupid bitch!”

  “Now, the left one,” she decided, and began to adjust her aim.

  “No, please! Stop! I can’t open it, I’m telling you! Dammit! I mean it! I mean it...” Mao and Sousuke exchanged a glance as they watched Harris, gripping his right knee and sniffling. They seemed somehow disappointed.

  “Well, Sousuke?” she asked her compatriot.

  “It doesn’t look like a performance,” Sousuke said, giving his opinion with cool-headed insight.

  “I guess it’s not gonna be that easy, huh?” Mao asked with a sigh.

  “Just as expected,” he agreed. “Let’s get to work.”

  “Right. Have Speck and the guys bring the machinery in,” Mao said, making the order official.

  “Roger.” Sousuke reached for the switch on his radio and contacted the team.

  “Hey, big guy! You gonna sit there crying all day? Get up!” Mao said, kicking Harris roughly with her toes as he rolled around on the floor.

  Meanwhile, the sound of the gunshot had brought Tessa and Kaname running from the other end of the hall. They protested immediately when they saw what was happening.

  “M-Mao-san?!” Kaname exclaimed in shock. “I know he’s a bad guy, but this is too far!”

  “Melissa? I understand that this is necessary, but at least treat his injury!” Tessa insisted.

  Mao scowled at them. “‘Treat his injury?’” she scoffed. “At the most, he needs some ointment.” They both looked at her, confused. “Look closer,” she suggested laconically. “Rubber bullets.” There was no blood on Harri
s’s shot knee. If she’d used a live round, there would have been a pool of crimson on the floor by now.

  “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!! A doctor... call a doctor, please!” The only one who didn’t seem to realize this, then, was Harris himself, who continued to writhe overdramatically.

  Soon enough, the members of the other teams that had secured the Pacific Chrysalis began to wander up to the vault. Some of them seemed to recognize Kaname, and called out things like, “Hey, Kaname!” and, “How you doing?” But because they were wearing masks, she didn’t know who was who. Corporal Yang and another soldier led off Captain Harris, who was still whining indignantly about the pain he was in. They’d probably continue his interrogation in another section of the ship. Electronic devices large and small were rolled in on a cart; these were probably meant for opening the vault door.

  “Are you gonna crack the safe now?” Kaname asked.

  “Yep,” Mao told her. “We’ll just have to pick the lock. Directed explosives won’t even dent the bulkhead around it; it’s about on par with the reactor of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.” Mao used a specialty tool to remove the console panel, then started fiddling with the electronics inside.

  “Is that impressive?” Kaname wanted to know.

  “Affirmative. A carrier’s nuclear reactor is designed to survive even a direct hit from an anti-ship missile unscathed. The metal they’re using here is close to that,” Sousuke said.

  “I was hoping to show Kaname what was in the safe, but... this is gonna take some time. Why don’t you rejoin your friends for now?” Mao asked.

  “Fine,” Kaname agreed. “But what’s in there, anyway?”

  “We don’t know yet,” Tessa said. “But it’s clear that they were after you, so it’s most likely related to your nature as a Whispered. They probably want to put you into a TAROS, or some other research apparatus... We’re going to interrogate the captain, and break into that safe tonight. We’ll collect all the data we can, then withdraw from this ship.”

  “Oh. So that’s why you’re here, Tessa?” Kaname finally understood. Tessa was quite capable as a submarine commander... but the minute you threw her out into the field, she became a useless klutz. It was one thing when trouble arose spontaneously, like in Ariake, but it was unusual for her to join a planned operation like this.

  “That’s right,” Tessa agreed, puffing out her chest. “They’ll need my intelligence to analyze what’s inside.”

  “I think you just wanted to dress up as a maid and mess around,” Kaname told her acridly.

  Tessa slumped over.

  Kaname was wondering if she’d gone too far, when Mao chimed in with agreement. “Kaname’s right, Tessa. You can’t complain about being seen that way, after how you’ve acted today.”

  “I—”

  “Please don’t trip up your soldiers in the field, all right, Colonel?” Ignoring Tessa’s pouting in response, Mao plugged a few cables to her laptop, then spoke into her radio. “Uruz-2 to Kaun-6. Cut the power to C35.”

  All the lights in the ceiling suddenly flicked off, then turned on again. Mao gazed at her PC’s holo-screen and clicked her tongue. “Ah, it’s no use. Forget it... Put it back on,” she ordered. “Knew it’d be an independent circuit... ugh. I’ll just have to work my way through each security level. I’ll need Dana’s help, too. For connection... yeah, V-channels and G-channels are too slow. I’ll need the wire. You brought the drum of fiberoptic, right? Call a turtle to the starboard side...”

  Kaname and the others stood by silently, listening to Mao’s jargon-laden speech.

  “Yeah,” Mao went on. “I want a wired connection to the turtle. Huh? The commander says no? Say it’s Tessa’s order, then.”

  Naturally, Tessa was annoyed at having her name used in vain. “Melissa! Do not arbitrarily invoke my authority!”

  “Okay, fine,” Mao said agreeably. “Can I have permission?”

  “W-Well—”

  “Kind of in a hurry, here.” Mao waved her hand in annoyance.

  Tessa hesitated for a second, then, with a sulky scowl, said, “You have my permission.”

  “Right, thanks.” With that, Mao turned her attention back to the job at hand. “Speck, is the ‘stethoscope’ ready?”

  “Ready,” Corporal Speck reported, playing around with the machine that used ultrasonic waves to determine the layout of the blocked-off room.

  “Then let’s try it out. Go on, Kaname, go rejoin the hostages,” Mao ordered. “Sousuke, make sure she gets there safe. Tessa, don’t loiter around here; you’ll end up tripping over the cables. Go somewhere you won’t be in the way. If you need something to do, you can get me a sandwich.” Ignoring Tessa’s attempts at protest, Mao clapped her hands together. “Everyone ready?! We’re short on time, so let’s get this done!”

  The members of the safe-cracking team all shouted, “Let’s do it!” in response.

  3: Two Captains

  24 December, 2052 Hours (Japan Standard Time)

  In front of the vault, Pacific Chrysalis

  The safecracking looked like it would take some time, so on Mao’s suggestion, Kaname decided to go back to her schoolmates. Sousuke hurried to accompany her.

  “It’s fine,” Kaname told him stiffly. “I can get back by myself.”

  “No,” he insisted. “I’ll walk you.”

  Just then, Kaname realized that Tessa, who’d been sulking over Mao’s patronizing treatment, was now glancing over at her. She couldn’t explain why, but it made her feel guilty. The treatment she got from Sousuke really did feel special, by comparison. He was biased in her favor, and that wasn’t fair at all. With that feeling nagging at her, she repeated, “I said it’s fine.”

  “No, I’ll walk you.”

  Sousuke refused to give in, so Kaname decided to give up on arguing and just start walking. Sousuke quietly accompanied her. The two walked away from the vault, then headed for the elevator that would return them to the upper deck.

  I’m a pretty awful person, Kaname found herself thinking. Just an hour ago, she’d been saying all sorts of unfair things to Kyoko. “I don’t care about that jerk,” and, “He doesn’t really like me at all.” But now that she was seeing the bigger picture, she was realizing that she was the real jerk in this situation. And yet, she hadn’t apologized even once. She’d been attacking him every step of the way, and she’d even behaved cruelly to Tessa.

  She had been angry and sarcastic, and even though Tessa was in a much more difficult position than she was, Kaname had actually been jealous of her. I really don’t get it, she thought in bewilderment. Why am I always like this?

  “Maybe I’m just spoiled...” Kaname muttered to herself. That could be it. It could also be that today’s a special day. Or maybe I just don’t feel right when he’s not with me...

  Still, she rationalized. I can’t let things stay like this forever. Isn’t that what I learned on that rainy day two months ago? Besides, I’m not sixteen anymore. With all that in mind, Kaname decided to speak up.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Yes?” Sousuke inquired.

  “Mm... nothing,” Kaname mumbled, chickening out.

  “I see.”

  Another long silence followed. They stopped in front of the elevator, pressed the call button to go up... and once more, Kaname forced herself to speak. “Hey,” she tried again.

  “Yes?”

  “Everything’s kind of turned into a mess, but...”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think I was... happy that you came, Sousuke,” she managed, then gently took his sleeve. She wasn’t yet ready to hold his hand.

  A longer silence followed.

  “Is... that weird?” Kaname asked. “Coming out of nowhere?”

  “No... I don’t think it’s weird.” This time, it was Sousuke’s turn to stumble over his words. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “R-Really?”

  “Yeah... hmm?” Sousuke cast a glance at the corner that joine
d the elevator hall to the corridor.

  “What is it?” Kaname wanted to know.

  “Nothing... Not an issue.”

  Kaname tilted her head at him.

  “It’s all right, I think,” Sousuke said reassuringly.

  The elevator door opened with a ding. Once they were inside, Kaname got a second wind. “Um, say. You want to hit up the observation deck?” she asked, in an energetic voice. “There’s no hurry to get back to the others, right?” She held her finger over the topmost button, then waited to see his reaction.

  “It’s true that there likely won’t be any more violence tonight, so it’s probably not an issue...” Sousuke pondered for a moment. “It will be cold outside, though.”

  “That’s okay,” Kaname told him. “We won’t stay out too long.”

  “I see. Wait just one minute.” Sousuke flipped his radio on and started a conversation with someone. It was all code names and jargon, and Kaname had no idea what any of it meant. At last, he said, “Uruz-7, roger. Thank you.” Then he shut off his radio and said to her, “Let’s go.”

  Kaname broke out in a smile.

  Corporal Yang of the SRT and Private Wu of the PRT walked along towards the crew quarters block, dragging Captain Harris along with them. It was a bare-bones corridor that went on and on. Since the area wasn’t used by passengers, it was full of exposed pipes and girders. There were no high-class furnishings to be found here, not even carpet.

  “So, Corporal,” Wu was saying, “I told this little girl, ‘Listen, just because it’s Christmas, doesn’t mean you can go wandering around town at this hour. You never know what kind of scum might try to pick you up.’”

  “Right,” Corporal Yang agreed.

  “And, well... she was just eleven or twelve years old, you know? And she grins at me like Master Sergeant Mao...”

  “She’s a lieutenant now, actually.”

  “...And she pulls this huge revolver out of her bag. It’s a .38-caliber, five-inch barrel. She says, ‘Get lost, soldier boy. You’re getting in the way of my business.’”

  “Wow...”