“You’re hiding with the same people you helped destroy.”
“The Empire can’t last forever,” Mutsuraga stated. “This is a perfect base of operations for the Americans and I can help them.”
“Wakana had a potential compromise for them ten years ago when it would have mattered.”
“Why didn’t you object then? Why didn’t you expose me when you had the chance?”
“I’ve asked myself that question every day since,” Ben said.
“Wakana was smart. He kept his mouth shut. You were too. Got you a comfortable job, didn’t it?”
“Couldn’t you have waited until after the compromise?”
“To know the woman I loved betrayed me for one of them.” Mutsuraga became meditative. “She used to sing every night. I was so consumed by my work, I got annoyed and told her to be quiet. I should have listened to her more back then.”
“Are you looking for redemption?”
“I had no idea things would turn out the way they did,” the general said.
“You wanted as many of them to suffer as possible,” Ben accused him. “You made sure of it.”
“What did you do to my game?” Mutsuraga asked.
“It’s not your game,” Ben said, before coughing blood on his chest.
“You set it up. I’ll give you that. But since then I’ve changed it, molded it in my image. I’ve created new worlds, designed games that have taken gamers to places they could never imagine. That abomination you’ve created, the USA that everyone is saying I did – is that your revenge?”
“Why do you think it was me who did it?”
“You think I wouldn’t recognize your handiwork? Your utopian vision of what America was. You paint a world that never existed. America, land of the brave and the free? Hardly. They arrested loyal Japanese because of their race and, when the war started going bad for them, they tortured tens of thousands of people, executed a quarter of those in the camps. You give people a false dream through the USA.”
“And you gave them the worst massacre in their history.”
“I will pay for what I’ve done. I’ve already had everything taken away from me.”
“I doubt that.”
“That game has spread everywhere and the Empire thinks I made it. I had to leave everything behind to come here.”
“It was your daughter who designed the game.”
“What?”
“Claire created the USA.”
Mutsuraga glowered incredulously. “H-how’s that possible? Why did she make it?”
“Atonement for her father’s sins.”
Mutsuraga flinched. “She knew about Meredith?”
Ben noticed the admission by implication even if the general didn’t. “She’s a genius at the portical. Of course she knew. She found out everything she could about the case and demanded the rest from me.”
“You told her?”
“She already knew,” Ben replied.
“But you confirmed it?”
“Yes.”
“And you helped her make the game?”
Ben didn’t feel the need to reply to the obvious. Mutsuraga’s hands were behind his back as he paced. Ben took deep breaths because his migraine was getting worse and it was hard for him to focus.
“All this time I thought it was you,” the general said. “The USA has all your marks, which, to be honest, surprised me. I thought you the most loyal soldier, that you would die for the Empire. But Claire – I never would have suspected she harbored so much anger and discontent, or that she was so naive.”
“She believed in something. Unlike you, using your power for personal vendetta.”
“I entrusted her to you because I had to send her away and you were the only person she trusted. I thought you could take good care of her.”
“I tried, but she was too much like her father.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Impossible to anticipate.”
Mutsuraga grunted, though Ben didn’t know if it was acknowledgment or annoyance. “You shouldn’t have helped her make it.”
“If I hadn’t helped her, she would have been arrested long ago and put to death.”
“Did you love her?” he wanted to know.
“I acted as her custodian,” Ben said. “And honored her wishes as my senpai’s daughter.”
“There was nothing be–”
“Nothing,” Ben immediately affirmed. “You shouldn’t even have to ask. I would never betray your trust that way.”
“I heard rumors.”
“You heard wrong. I loved her as a sister. She had boyfriends and I made sure they treated her well.”
“I’m sorry that I brought this up.”
Ben tested the rope that held him in place, but it was too tight. “One illicit relationship already caused too much death and destruction.”
“We were going to fight that war to the bitter end whether I was there or not.”
“And we, as officers, should have fought against that. If the Germans attacked us, the Americans would have helped us against the Nazis. No one wanted to be under their rule. But because of what we did in San Diego, we’re no different from them.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“Not yours,” Ben said.
“If you came here just to accuse me, stop wasting my time.”
“I came here for you.”
“What do you mean?” Mutsuraga asked.
“I promised Claire your head.”
“What for?”
“For her mother’s death.”
Mutsuraga gripped the arms of the chair. The veins on his forehead bulged and his eyes tightened into slits. He looked ugly and vicious, impetus clashing against the convoluted mess of revelation. “She hated me that much?”
“No,” Ben answered. His vision was blurry and it looked like the general’s head was double its size. “She loved you. She couldn’t forgive you for what you did, but she couldn’t hate you either.”
“And that’s why you’re here for my head instead of taking care of her funeral rites?”
“This is part of her last will.”
“Then she really committed suicide?”
“She wanted the Mutsuraga line to end with her. When I tried to convince her not to, she left.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Mutsuraga asked, this time not as a soldier or commanding officer, but as a father.
“What could I have said? Your daughter wants you dead because you executed her mother?”
Mutsuraga paced again. “I’ve spent the last few months with these Americans. They’re a strange breed. They believe in strange things. But I can understand their allure. The world would have been an interesting place if they hadn’t lost the war, even if we would have been their slaves. The USJ army has sent an invasion force to attack the GWs. They’re on the border of San Diego and they’ve already started their assault.”
Ben remembered Kujira’s report earlier. “What’s the point?”
“To celebrate the anniversary, show Tokyo they’re still in control. But they’ll be defeated.”
“How?”
“The USA game has an open version of the simulator.”
“The one we use?”
“A more advanced version. I’ve helped set up the parameters to predict USJ tactics. Plus someone – I assume you? – set up multiple scenarios on how they could attack the Americans based on strategies we devised long ago as potential threats.”
Multiple stages were based on strategic analyses Ben had recorded with Claire that were literally the USJ’s worst tactical nightmares. “I updated them with the new defensive grid.”
“A damn fine job you did too,” Mutsuraga said. “These George Washingtons are going to give the Empire a beating they won’t forget.”
A group of Americans entered the room.
“George Washington has requested your presence at the front,” one stated.
Mutsuraga put his hand on Ben’s sh
oulder. “I tried to have you spared, but these Americans are insistent on their quaint rituals. They’re going to baptize you with electricity so at least you won’t remember any of this. I’m sorry you weren’t able to keep your promise to Claire.”
“I’m not dead yet.”
Mutsuraga patted Ben on the shoulder. “Goodbye, Ishimura.”
Mutsuraga followed the Americans out. Three others brought the electrocution machine and a bowl of water to continue their baptism. Their faces were a nebulous haze and his consciousness was blurring. All that electricity had caused the portical of his brain to break into disparate pieces and he was unable to retain coherent thought.
“Lincoln said to finish him off. Raise the voltage to three thousand.”
“I wish barbecued flesh didn’t stink so much. My lady won’t come within an inch of me until I shower like a hundred times.”
“Your girlfriend wouldn’t come within an inch of you even if you sho–”
A spray of gunfire ricocheted around Ben and a laser beam melted the face of the American in front of him. The two others began to run, but were shot down.
“I’m sorry it took me so damn long to find you,” Akiko said, as she hurried to his aid. Behind her, there were several dead Americans. “The–” She gasped when she saw his blackened flesh. “Our soldiers are attacking San Diego. They nearly shot me.”
“They’re heading into a trap. We have to get Mutsuraga.”
“You’re in no condition. The–”
“I have to get him!” Ben cut her off.
“Can you even stand on your feet?”
Akiko loosened Ben’s rope. He stumbled to the ground, unable to keep his balance. He tried to rise, but was too weak. His arms and legs were an electrocuted nightmare of ash baked on flesh.
“Give me your arm,” Akiko ordered.
“Why?”
“Just give it to me!”
Akiko unlatched the syringe in her pack, searched for a vein on Ben’s arm. She injected him with her last capsule of steroidal enhancers. It took a minute before energy swelled through his body. The hurt was muted, suppressed by chemicals that spurred hormonal growth and inhibited the pain receptors.
“Do you have the portical I gave you?” he asked.
Akiko handed it to him. Right as she did, someone fired at them. Both took cover behind the chair, though it didn’t provide much protection. Akiko let loose a huge burst from her laser, aiming as best she could. She killed the assailant, but she cringed, her shoulder muscles all tensed up.
Another GW entered and fired. Akiko fired at him, but the pain in her shoulder caused her to shake and miss. Fortunately, the shot hit the ceiling, causing part of it to fall. It provided enough of a reprieve for them to find better cover through a doorway and into a room without a window – a dead end. As soon as they entered, a volley of bullets poured in their direction. Akiko’s elbows were bleeding and the gun arm appeared loose, the muscles having torn. She’d been shot on the way in. Ben accessed the portical, trying to recollect the codes for the missiles guarding the building. He wished his brain cells hadn’t been addled because he couldn’t remember them.
“Ishimura,” Akiko called.
“What?”
“You need to help me prop my arm up.”
“Why?”
“I think I broke a bone because I can’t lift it.”
The gun was very heavy and Ben wondered how she had been able to carry it this far. He raised it in the general direction of the GWs and she winced, biting her tongue. A bone cracked and more muscles tore. Akiko ignored the pain and fired. The recoil caused both of them to stumble back. Ben peeked out the door, but couldn’t determine how many of them were left. He heard them yelling to each other and presumed they were going to try to flank them. Bullets continued their diatribe. Ben searched the portical again and tracked the missiles he’d seen earlier by manually searching for older kikkai connections, ones that wouldn’t show up on automatic searches anymore. He found one with an antiquated designation number, a series of codes he remembered from a decade ago. He was able to disrupt the password easily and take control of the guidance system. There were two automobiles within proximity of Congress leaving at a fast pace. He released the trigger on both, then aimed another missile back at the building, finding the conglomerate of human heat signatures opposite of them. He fired and said to Akiko, “We need to get outside.”
“We can’t go out that way,” she answered, eyeing the hallway.
“Then what should we do?”
Akiko checked the walls.
“Help me set this to maximum,” she ordered, looking at a gauge on her gun arm.
Ben helped her turn the dial to the highest setting. They lifted up the gun and shot the wall. Both of them fell back. The blast ripped a hole that gave them access to outside the building, but the recoil had caused Akiko’s gun arm to tear off. There was blood everywhere. Akiko growled, trying her best to contain her agony. Ben helped her up and even though she was nauseous, she suppressed her pain. They leaned on each other as they jumped through the new opening. Outside, a fire burned around a destroyed vehicle. There were three bodies crawling out of the flipped car. The second transport was still on its way. Ben checked the portical and saw it had traveled more than five miles. The missile must have missed. The third missile had made impact with the building, causing a small explosion that he hoped would delay reinforcements. Ben sprinted to the three fallen GWs. Two were unconscious but alive. The third, Mutsuraga, was on the ground, trying to crawl away and escape. “Do you have a car?” Ben asked Akiko.
Akiko pointed to an older sedan with a corrugated frame. “Only one I could find that still worked.”
“Get it ready,” Ben ordered.
“Where are you going?”
“To keep a promise.”
Ben approached Mutsuraga. The older man looked up at him.
“Do you remember what you once told me?” Ben asked him. “‘The sword is an extension of our soul. Used properly, it becomes a part of who we are, an expression of our being. Kill a man with a gun, and you have no connection to him. Kill him with a sword, and your souls are intertwined.’”
Ben took the sword from Mutsuraga’s sheath.
“I don’t want there to be souls or an afterlife. I couldn’t bear the thought of having to face either of them again, Ishimura,” Mutsuraga said pleadingly.
“I don’t believe in an afterlife, sir.”
“That means I can finally rest.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mutsuraga closed his eyes. Ben remembered the first time the general had taken notice of him at BEMAG, asking him his interests and praising his programming speed. Mutsuraga had changed his life, and now Ben was ending his. He forced his arms to swing, cutting Mutsuraga’s neck. He did not cut at a clean angle, unused to the thickness of flesh and bone. The sword only went halfway through before getting stuck. Blood spilled out of the wound, a viscous overflow that painted his neck vermilion. The general screamed in pain. Ben tried to pull the sword back out, but it was jammed. He had no choice but to push him off using his shoe. Mutsuraga tried to say something, his lips twisting in zigzags. Blood spurted out of his mouth, the skin around his chin doused red. Ben tried to finish him, but his attempts only exacerbated his pain, and blood dripping down the sword smeared his fingers. He pulled the sword back out. “Forgive me, general.” He swung again, and this time the head came off the shoulders. Ben picked the head up and shut the eyelids.
Akiko pulled up in the sedan, driving with her single prosthetic arm. The engine had a screech to it and the fumes from the exhaust were egregiously spewing out gray smoke. He hopped into the passenger side and placed Mutsuraga’s head in the back.
“Which way?” she asked.
“North. To the security perimeter at the Wall.” He checked the portical scanners again. Not only had the vehicle turned around, but four more were heading in their direction. He informed Akiko of the fact.
&n
bsp; “Americans?” she asked.
“Most likely. Want me to drive?”
They switched positions and he handed her his portical.
“Do you have a gun? ’Cause I don’t have one.”
Ben shook his head. “All I have is this sword.”
He’d killed in San Diego, but not like this. It’d always been from his desk, checking the tactical simulations, ordering regiments in different directions. The simulation hadn’t handled guerilla warfare well, so he was constantly updating the parameters. The deaths he’d caused had been executed by others. His hands were shaking at the wheel and General Wakana’s words during San Diego still burned him, even though it’d been a decade. “If you hadn’t let Mutsuraga take the credit for your work, he would not be in this position of authority and today’s bombing would not have happened.” And San Diego would have been avoided.
“There’s all these new heat signatures in the opposite direction,” Akiko said, holding up the portical.
Ben took a quick glance. The markings were USJ forces. Behind them, the five tracking vehicles had doubled to ten. Most likely the Imperial forces, spotting all the bogies coming from San Diego, would assume the lead car was a hostile and destroy them, not allowing them to get close enough for a kamikaze strike. Neither the car, nor their military crafts, had open porticals through which he could interface, and he didn’t have enough time to break their encryption codes. To go forward was death. To stop meant an even worse end.
“What are you laughing about?” Akiko asked.
Ben hadn’t realized he’d been laughing. He sped up.
Akiko leaned back in her seat. “They’re going to attack us if we don’t slow down.
“It’d be a fine death, wouldn’t it? Destroyed by both the Americans and the Empire.”
Ahead of them, she saw the outlines of an enormous mecha. Tanks were rolling their way. “I guess it’s fitting since we don’t belong to either anymore.”
“The United States of Tsukino and Ishimura,” Ben jested. “Destroyed over a miscommunication.”
“You really want to die, don’t you?”
“It’s the only way to avenge the death of my parents.”
“What?”
“Who mourns for them? Not even their own son.”
United States of Japan Page 29
