“We’ll have to find another way there,” Ben said.
“What other options do we have?” Akiko asked.
“I don’t know. You should have told me she was dead on the portical,” Ben said to Kujira.
Kujira shrugged. “I didn’t think you were actually going to come. At least you got here for the festivities, old man.”
“They celebrate the anniversary here too?”
Kujira shook his head. “Bunch of George Washingtons got captured. Just arrived on the boat. Heard they tried to attack City Hall and failed. They’re going to get stamped soon.”
“Stamped?”
Kujira Jr knocked his head with his fist. “Tick tock,” he said, and made a droning sound. “You ever seen the Telereformer?”
“No.”
“Oh, you gotta see it. Very efficient, built seven years ago as the ultimate punishment by Commandant Hatanaka. He was a surgeon before he ran this prison. C’mon, I’ll show ya.”
“You got a cut too?”
Kujira removed the metal plate, latched it back on. “Easy to blend in. Soldiers leave me alone this way.”
“How’s the security here?”
“A joke. The guards hate it here too.” Kujira handed them each metal plates. “Put them on your head.”
Ben wore it like a helmet. Akiko did the same, though hers kept slipping off. Ben switched with hers as it was a better fit.
Kujira sprinted ahead.
“Is it safe to follow?” Akiko confirmed with Ben.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I don’t think we have a choice. All the time I knew Kujira, I never knew she had a son.”
“Most of us barely know anything about those we serve with,” Akiko replied.
Ben’s muscles loosened as they progressed, though he stopped a few times to stretch achy tendons.
“Catalina used to be a naval base, right?” Akiko asked.
“Long time ago before they abandoned it in favor of the penal center. The island used to be an experimental facility where they built the prototypes for the second generation of mechas after the war ended. That’s why the senior Kujira came here with a mecha she stole from San Diego. Said there were old parts she could use to fix up her own.”
“This is a terrible place to die,” Akiko said.
“I’ve seen worse.”
They crossed through a valley and out the road from the mountains. Thousands of prisoners were clustered around a strange-looking device. It resembled a pagoda, but there were cogs forming a circumference around it as though its interior were exposed. Inside, there was a slab and above it, a jaw of spikes similar to a harrow, a sheath of blood masking it. An elderly soldier who’d shaved his head and was clad in a USJ uniform stood with a slouch. His mouth was agape as though it were hanging from his face. If his eyes weren’t moving, he would have seemed as brainless as the others. He had the rank of commandant.
There was a line of manacled Americans. USJ soldiers stood guard and pushed the captives into the machine. One of the prisoners was strapped to the slab. The officer tapped some buttons. The group watched as the machine came to life. The parts sputtered awake and the needles began skipping rapidly. The pagoda voraciously devoured his scalp and incisions seared the flesh to cut it open. The prisoner was unconscious so he did not scream. The lobotomy was quick and only lasted a minute. The man was woken. He emerged with a plate on his head as a badge showing that his resistance had been erased. The next prisoner was forced into the Telereformer. The lobotomized prisoners appeared in awe of it, regarding the machine with reverence, stopping short of actually worshipping it.
Akiko marched forward. Ben asked, “Where are you going?”
“That’s Martha Washington,” she said.
Ben’s eyes went to the bald American woman who had supervised Akiko’s limb removal.
His mind began calculating. “This could work in our favor.”
“What could work in our favor?” Kujira asked.
He tilted his head in the direction of the Telereformer. “That prisoner is one of the principal leaders of the George Washingtons.”
“The terrorists that Mom fought?”
“The same group with different people now. If we take Martha with us, it could be insurance in San Diego if something goes wrong,” Ben explained, then peered over at Akiko to gauge her reaction.
She gave no indication she had heard him, simmering in rage.
“Did you hear what I said?” Ben asked her.
“I heard,” she said. “And it’s not going to work because I’m going to kill her.”
“Kill her after we get Mutsuraga,” Ben said. “For now, we can use her.” When Akiko did not respond, Ben said, “Agent Tsukino. Get a grip of yourself.”
Akiko took a deep breath. Her face was still, but her brows and nasal folds dripped with hate.
“Remember what we talked about last night?” Ben reminded her.
“This is different.”
“How?”
She gestured to her arms. “I’m going to do to her what she did to me, times ten.”
“I’m not stopping you. I’m just asking you to hold off.”
“And bring her along with us for her assistance?”
“Something like that.”
“I don’t even want to breathe the same air as her,” Akiko snarled.
“You won’t have to for long. Remember our mission.”
Akiko glowered for a long time, rage making her eyes two cold obsidians. “If she tries anything, I will kill her on the spot.”
Two soldiers noticed the commotion and looked in their direction. Fortunately, the loud noise from the Telereformer masked the brunt of their discussion. But they still approached to investigate. Kujira and Ben immediately acted dumb, their eyes wandering haphazardly. Akiko’s prosthetic arms wavered. “You there!” a soldier yelled at Akiko. “Identify yourself!”
Akiko crumbled to the ground, tried to stand, and fell back down, face in the dirt. She mumbled random thoughts. The soldiers saw her metal helmet and returned to their posts where they lit up a cigarette and mocked the newly lobotomized GWs.
Ben was visibly relieved by her deception. But he blanched when he saw one of the prisoners, a male with big donkey teeth whose hair had grown out.
“What’s wrong?” Akiko asked, standing up, wiping the dirt off her.
“I-I thought I recognized him.”
“Do you?”
Ben shook his head a little too eagerly. “No. Or yes. Maybe.”
“Who is he?”
“Used to serve with me. Got into trouble criticizing his superiors.” He tried not to look the other in the face. “I think if you can pretend to be a Kempei officer on a surprise inspection, we can take Martha Washington away from them.”
“What if they ask for authorization?”
Ben tapped his portical. “Let me arrange it. You mind pretending to be Tiffany Kaneko?”
Akiko marched to the soldiers without waiting for Ben’s OK and barked, “This is what you call security?”
The guards raised their rifles. “Who are you?”
“My name is Tiffany Kaneko of the Kempeitai,” Akiko lied. “I’m here to take that prisoner with me into custody. Ozawa!” she called and looked at Ben.
Ben sprinted forward, hastily working on the portical. “Yes, ma’am.”
“How would you rate the security on the prison?”
“Pitiful,” Ben answered in compliance with her tone.
“I will interrogate this one further,” pointing to Martha Washington. “If she has anything useful to offer, I will return her. If not, I will dispose of her.”
Ben created the fake orders to Avalon in case they queried about Agent Kaneko. He also replaced identifying photos of Tiffany with Akiko’s so a visual check would sync up. There was no way this would get past an official checkpoint, but these guards didn’t look like as though they would be as thorough.
“Do you have identification, ma’am
?” a soldier asked.
“You have the nerve to ask me for an ID after I’ve penetrated your defenses?” Akiko snorted. “If I wasn’t who I said I am, how would I have made my way here?”
“You could be a rebel,” the soldier sheepishly suggested.
“What’s your portical key?” Ben asked him.
The soldier gave him the ID and Ben sent over the fake commands. The corporal examined the orders and bowed apologetically. “Forgive me, ma’am. Have the prisoner released into their custody.”
The soldiers handed over a cuffed Martha Washington to Ben. She towered over him, though she was struggling to stand, bruised and hurt from her captivity at the hands of the Empire. Her clothes were torn and dirty, and he could see where the gunshots had left scars during San Diego. Akiko marched away and Ben followed, pulling Washington along. The commandant did not seem to have noticed, focused on managing the Telereformer.
“I thought you were going to San Diego,” Martha said, when they were clear of the soldiers.
“Still am,” Ben replied. “I’m surprised to see you alive.”
“It’s all part of the Empire’s farce to put us on trial and send us to Catalina to be rehabilitated.” She spat out a tooth and some blood. “I’m surprised to see her still standing.” Ben was about to say something, but she stopped him. “What do you want?”
“Help us get Mutsuraga.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“We stop his lies and let you go afterwards,” Ben lied.
Martha Washington didn’t buy it, looking ahead to Akiko. “She agree to this too?”
“Yes,” Ben said.
“I want to hear it from her.”
Ben hesitated, and Martha took note of it. “Agent Tsukino,” he called.
Agent Tsukino turned around.
“You agreed to the deal, right?” Ben confirmed. “Her life in exchange for her help.”
Akiko did not hide her hostility. “It’s as he said.”
Martha Washington laughed. “Very convincing,” she mocked her. “I don’t want my death sentence deterred. And I have no interest in helping either of you. I’d rather go back there. Cleaner death that way.”
“Let me put it a different way,” Ben said. “You’re our hostage. You don’t have a choice.”
“So I come along and you kill me the second you don’t need me, right?” Martha Washington stated out the terms.
“You’re right,” Akiko jumped in, gun arm itching to be raised. Ben was about to stand in her way when Akiko continued, “I would have killed you earlier, but Captain Ishimura thinks you can be of assistance. That buys you a little time and hope.”
“What good is hope?”
“You can hope we’ll screw up and you’ll have a small window where we’re distracted enough so you can make your escape.”
“Not much of a hope.”
“Better than getting your brain lobotomized.”
Akiko continued without them. Martha deliberated on it, then followed, though she was struggling to walk with her wounds.
Kujira was confounded and asked Martha Washington directly, “What did you do to them?”
“I stood up to the tyranny of the Empire and struck a blow for our cause,” she answered proudly.
“America is dead,” Kujira said. “Why waste your energy?”
“The spirit of America won’t die until the last of us are killed. And then it’ll live on as an ideal to resist the heresy of a man claiming to be a god. We believe all people are created equal and born with certain inalienable rights.”
“Weird,” Kujira noted.
“I know it seems weird to you. Your concept of the whole world is distorted, but you’re too young to know otherwise.”
“Mom told me you were all a bunch of fanatics who were nothing like the actual Americans.”
Martha guffawed. “The first Americans were rebels fighting the odds.”
“So are the last ones,” Kujira replied.
Martha Washington tugged at her chains, resenting the restraints.
12:12PM
Ben wasn’t confident his fabricated IDs would survive an authentication process and suggested Akiko and Kujira go ahead to scout the road, make sure there weren’t any more guards. Ben stayed behind to escort Martha Washington. It wasn’t a rigorous trek, but she stumbled climbing the hills. She refused his aid, insisting on walking on her own strength.
“I need a break,” she said.
“We don’t have time,” Ben replied.
“Then go without me.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“If the other GWs even suspected I helped you, you know what they’d do to me?”
“The same thing you did to Agent Tsukino?” Ben speculated.
“Worse,” Martha Washington said. “Even if I escaped, they’d never trust me. I wouldn’t trust me if I were them.”
Akiko marched towards them. “What’s taking so long?” she demanded.
Ben gestured towards Martha. “She needs a break.”
Akiko saw how exhausted Martha Washington appeared. “You have five minutes.” To Ben, “The road’s clear.”
“I should have killed you,” Martha Washington said, licking the blood off her lips.
Akiko turned around. “You should have. What stopped you?”
“Initially, your partner’s pathetic pleas for your life. You’d have been moved if you saw the way he begged me to let you live.”
Akiko looked to Ben for a denial, but he shrugged and said, “Sorry.”
“That wasn’t why I spared you,” Martha said. “It was after both your arms were eaten and you were about to go unconscious. You started talking to Jenna. Remember her? She only helped us because her nephew was part of our group. Her dream was to perform in the Compton Opera House and you couldn’t even give her that.”
“I don’t need to justify my actions to a traitor.”
Martha Washington grinned and there was something sinister in it that made Ben jump in and ask, “Where’s Kujira?”
“But that wasn’t it either,” Martha Washington continued. “It was when you started talking to your mother. Do you remember that?”
“No.”
“You apologized for your brother. What was it you said? Something about failing your responsibility. You–”
Akiko swung her gun arm into Martha Washington’s face.
Ben tried to stop her, but Akiko raised her cannon at him. “Get out of my face.”
“She’s baiting you.”
“So what?”
“Remember our agreement?”
“I’m giving you three seconds to step away.”
“She’s unarmed,” Ben said, scrounging for a defense. “You have to respect bushido.”
“Bushido has no place here.”
“Shut up!” Martha Washington yelled, spitting out blood. “Neither of you have any right to talk about honor. Your soldiers murdered my entire family while they slept. I got ten bullet holes in my body that night, one for each person that died. I used them to hunt each of their killers and I got them all. ‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.’”
“She wants to die,” Ben said. “You’re giving her what she wants.”
“I do want to die. But not as much as she does,” Martha Washington said, leering at Akiko. “You should have heard the way she was groveling for her brothe–”
Akiko fired her gun at Martha’s hand, burning the whole thing off, sinew and bones disintegrating. Martha howled in agony.
“Go wait with Kujira,” Akiko warned and the truculence in her command brooked no dissent.
Ben forced himself down the hill where Kujira was returning.
“Something happen?” he asked.
They heard more gun blasts, more screaming. Kujira was about to sprint towards them, but Ben stopped him.
“What the hell is going on?”
Ben explained in brief, summarizing their past.
/> “And you’re going to let it happen?” Kujira inquired.
“What would you do in her shoes? Besides, Martha Washington wants to die.”
“Why would anyone want to die?”
Ben sighed. “Death is her only way out.”
“No, it’s not,” Kujira said. “It’s just the easiest.”
“Death is never easy. Your mom used to say, honor is the only thing that separates us from animals.”
“So what?”
“This is Martha Washington’s way of trying to maintain her honor to her death.”
“Honor is just a word people use to feel good about themselves,” Kujira said.
Five gunshots echoed from behind them.
Akiko approached and said, “Let’s go.”
1:45PM
Kujira’s home was southwest of the Telereformer in a hidden cove. Akiko washed her gun by the beach.
“Why do you need to get to San Diego?” Kujira asked.
“Long story,” Ben said.
“You can tell me, old man.”
“I have to kill an older man.”
“What is with you two and killing?”
“I made a promise a long time ago to kill this man.”
“Is he a bad person?”
Ben shook his head. “Not any worse than the rest of us.”
“San Diego is guarded all around its perimeter.”
“That’s why I was hoping your mom could help. She was the best mecha pilot in the USJ and I know she has access to one.”
“You think she would have helped you, knowing that you were going to go kill a man?”
“I wish I’d have had a chance to ask her.”
Kujira took out his new portical and played some games on them. “What’s this one called USA?”
“Brand new game that tells the Pacific War from the American side, assuming they’d won.”
Kujira had already started playing it.
Ben left Kujira and went down to the beach. Akiko was scrubbing away the blood on her gun arm. The smell of salt wiped away everything else. The waves volleyed shells and pebbles towards the shore.
“Do you feel better?” Ben asked.
United States of Japan Page 25
