“Can he get out?” Michi asked.
“Well, we’ll find out, won’t we, if he can,” Doug said logically.
Michi spotted a shape as the dust settled. Her heart lurched, but the shape was still.
“Over there,” she shouted, sprinting to the edge of the river where a Marine was lying face up.
He wasn’t moving. As Michi got closer, she could see that the lower half of his combat suit was crushed. The Marine was dead.
How can he be dead when the one under all the rubble is still alive? she wondered.
“Quick, over there, from his head,” she told Doug. “I want them to be able to see him.”
As Doug scrambled over the rocks that littered the river bank, Michi put her foot on the Marine’s head, then moved to beside the Marine, then finally decided on a foot on the chest.
“How do I look?” she asked Doug as he raised his recorder.
“Uh, your face!”
“No, this is what I want,” she said, not turning on the spoofer.
“You sure?”
“Yes!” she almost screamed. “Hurry up! We don’t have much time!”
The red light came on, and Michi calmed herself. She turned to stare into the camera with her best warrior look.
“My name is Michiko MacCailín. Some of you know me as The Red Athena. I was born and raised here on Kakurega, and this is my home, a home under siege. Propitious Interstellar has not only broken the charter, but they have murdered our citizens, not the least being my fiancé, Franz Galipili. When we resisted, they called in the Federation to rescue them with the Marines. Make no doubt about it, we have been invaded, and we must fight back. The Marines are not invincible, as you can see. We can win. All sons and daughters of Kakurega, rise up and throw the invaders off our home!”
“Michi, we need to go,” Doug said, pulling down the recorder.
There was a strange sound coming from the direction in which the other two Marines had marched. It sounded like a cross between a cargo truck and a plane.
Doug was already scrambling up the bank. Michi gave him a hand up, and both sprinted to the brush that hid the access door. They were still 10 or 15 meters away when two shapes burst past the cliff point and into the rubble field.
“Go!” Doug shouted, pushing Michi forward into the bushes. Michi saw the cliff face and thought they had made it when the bushes disintegrated and chips started flying from the rock face. Several chips hit her as she fell more than dove into the entrance and scrambled on her hands and knees to the gate. Her ears were ringing as she reached up to push the gate open.
She took a moment to look back for Doug when he plowed into her, knocking both of them past the gate and onto the dank floor.
Michi lay there, trying to catch her breath when Doug picked her up, shouting “Go, go!” They stumbled forward, the only light coming from the entrance in back of them.
When the light behind them went dark, Michi thought they had gone far enough, but Doug pushed her down to the rock floor. A moment later, all hell broke out over them. A dip in the floor protected them, but chips of rock fell on top of them as rounds impacted, and then Michi felt the tingle of a side lobe of some sort of energy weapon.
“Keep low, but crawl,” Doug told her.
Both of them, Michi in the lead and Doug literally on her butt, managed to scoot farther down the passage. When Michi felt the opening to the left, she knew they had reached their route out. She pulled Doug in, and they both sat up, gasping for air.
“Why did you use your real face for the recording?” Doug asked in the darkness as a few rounds zipped past the opening and farther down the first tunnel. “They’re going to know who you are as soon as we broadcast it.”
“Have you ever heard the word arinomamade?” she asked him as her heart started to slow down its frantic beating.
“No. Is that Japanese?”
“Yeah. My grandmother used to say it. It means the way something is, or maybe ‘it is what it is.’ It’s kinda hard to put exactly in Standard. But it fits why I did that.”
Some stone chips knocked free by the Marines firing managed to ricochet into their side tunnel, and both friends scooted in another three meters.
“It is what it is?” Doug prompted.
“Yeah. I am not the Red Athena. I’m me, a First Family citizen of Kakurega. I’m me, Michiko MacCailín, whose fiancé was murdered by the company. I’m me, a girl who won’t stand for that anymore. That’s who I am, and I’m not going to hide behind a disguise. If people are going to listen to me, they deserve it to be me, not some comic book construct. Arinomamade!”
“I guess I understand, but your life just got levels more difficult. I hope you realize that. Think about it, OK? I don’t have to release this if you change your mind,” he said, patting his recorder where he’d hooked it to his belt.
“I won’t. I didn’t quite say what I had planned out there, but what I said was me, too. I want you to run with it.”
“Your call, Michi. I’ll ask you again before I do, though.”
The firing down the entry tunnel stopped. The Marines must have given up, Michi figured.
“Good thing those guys are too big to get in here,” Doug said as what had happened sunk in.
“That saved us,” Michi said before another thought struck her. “But the specs said they can molt out of their suits. What if they come in after us on foot?”
“Shit. I didn’t think of that. Let’s get moving.”
He pulled a flashlight out of his pocket, and the two of them started off at a slow jog down the tunnel. It would take awhile for the Marines to access the plans, as Doug had erased all copies on Kakurega. They would have Federation copies, but it would take them some time to realize that. Within 20 minutes, the two would be at their exit and changing into the clothes they had left there earlier.
Michiko had kept her promise. She had taken it to the Marines on her own terms and won!
Chapter 28
How about Hanggaju Gozen?” Doug said, looking up from his PA. “That’s in keeping with Tamara’s Highlander Samurai theme. It says here she was an onna bugeisha, or female warrior. Oh, not wait, she was captured and forced to marry the shogun. We don’t want you and the CEO hooking up.”
The three were sitting in the condo, watching the net as Michi’s camcording was the subject of most social media. The company blocked all official access, but the under-net could not be blocked without shutting down the entire planet, something the company could not do and maintain production. They’d issued one statement, that there had been a “manufactured” camcording released, but that it was all CGI.
On GC109, a popular forum, one poster had written that given the latest recording, the name ‘The Red Athena” was somewhat inaccurate. That was probably a little too far for even the normally light-handed moderators of the forum, but the three had read it before it was deleted and were lazily discussing a public name for Michi.
“I still think the Highlander Samurai is brills,” Tamara said, refusing to give up.
“Some people are calling you, the Kakurega Jeanne d’Arc, you know,” Doug went on.
“I saw that,” Michi said, “and my ancestors are probably rolling over in their graves. A French heroine? If anyone, it should at least be a good Celtic girl, like Boudicca.”
“Not everyone has your vaunted Scottish ancestry, and no one knows about her. I wouldn’t have, if you hadn’t pointed her out on the history holo,” Tamara said.
“Here’s another: Tomoe Gozen. Seems she was a vaunted warrior and cut off the head of some enemy general,” Doug started.
Michi almost flinched at the “cutting off the head,” part. Both Doug and Tamara knew that she had killed Hokkam, but the security report never mentioned her beheading him, and she had kept that to herself.
“She’s been popular over the ages in anime, so some people should know her. Oh, wait, she was this other guy’s concubine. What is it with these Japanese fighters? Maybe t
hose Celtic goddesses we found would be better,” Doug went on.
“I already told you I’ve already decided. I made myself pretty clear. I’m Michiko MacCailín. I don’t need a Celtic goddess or Japanese samurai to give me credibility.”
“Oh, you’re no fun,” Tamara said sourly. “If you’re going by your real name, how can I be ‘The Tattooed Avenger?’”
She got off the couch and stomped off to the bathroom.
“Do you think she likes that guy?” Doug asked.
“What guy?”
“You know, the Brotherhood spy,” Doug said.
“Him? Tamara ‘likes’ almost everyone, and she has a pretty active appetite. You know that. Would she play hide-in-the-cupboard with him? I don’t know. Probably, if the opportunity presented itself,” Michi responded. “Why?”
“Just wondering.”
“Is the boyfriend getting jealous?” Michi asked with a laugh.
With Doug constantly coming over, they had decided a little over a week ago that Doug and Tamara should become a “thing.” They ate lunches together at work and came home together when their schedules coincided. And Doug slept over more often than he went home. He slept on the couch, and inside the condo, it was the same as always, but they hoped to anyone on the outside that it would seem the two had a real relationship.
“No!” Doug protested. “I, well, I just want to make sure everything looks right. That’s all.”
His vehement denial gave Michi pause. Did Doug really like her?
That line of thought disappeared as an undernet feed chimed on both of their PAs. A vid of Marines moving through some buildings could be seen, and a voice said that there had been violence again in Dundee. The vid was choppy and unsteady, but it zoomed in past the Marines to what were unmistakably bodies. The voice reported that over 100 were killed as they assaulted a Marine unit.
“What’s up?” Tamara said as she came out of the bathroom.
“People are fighting the Marines,” Doug said soberly. “I guess they listened.”
Michi stared at the dead bodies. She knew, she hoped, it would come to this. But seeing the bodies, well, that brought it into focus. Those people were alive this morning, kissing lovers and playing with children. Now, because of Michi, they were dead.
The price of war hit Michi hard.
Chapter 29
“OK, we’re running late. Stand up and take off your shirt,” Doug said as he and Tamara came in the door.
“What?” she asked, standing up, but not taking off her T.
“Come on, girl. Your shirt, take it off,” Tamara said, reaching over to help.
Michi didn’t resist, but she didn’t help much either as the shorter Tamara struggled to get the T over her head.
“Bra, too, girl. Come on, off!” Tamara said impatiently.
Michi glanced at Doug. Despite him now living on the couch, she had not paraded naked in the condo. She had changed from the bikini to her Red Athena shirt in the park, but that had been a quick switch while Doug watched the kill zone. Now, Doug was standing there, watching and waiting. With a sigh, she shrugged and touched the two release buds, and her bra cups fell to the ground.
Doug handed Tamara what looked to be a large roll of gauze, like medics and nurses used.
“Hands up,” she told Michi.
Michi felt exposed like that, and she wished she knew what the two had prepared for her. She knew she needed a disguise, but what that had to do with her standing exposed like that was beyond her.
Tamara put the leading edge of the gauze against Michi’s side. “Doug, help me. Hold this here.”
Michi stared over Doug’s bent head as he reached forward, pressing the leading edge against her. Tamara started walking in back of Michi, unrolling the gauze. She came to the front again, pulling the gauze tight against Michi’s breasts. Then it became clear. They were binding her! OK, that made some sense.
It took a few minutes, but finally Tamara stepped back and looked at Michi’s chest. “What do you think?” she asked Doug.
“She’s still not petite, but I think it’s enough,” Doug said.
Michi, hands still up, looked down. Her chest was not small, but her breasts had been flattened pretty well. She lowered her arms and then swung them around to see if the gauze would stay in place.
“That feel OK?” Tamara asked.
“Uh, yeah. Weird, but OK.”
“Let me have the pad,” Tamara told Doug, who handed over what looked like a warped pillow. “I don’t know. The duct tape?”
“Yeah, I think the gauze might shift,” Doug said as they stared at her as if she was a mannequin.
“This might hurt a little when it comes off,” Tamara told her as she and Doug put the pad around her belly and over her hips and duct taped it into place.
It was tight, and it restricted Michi’s breathing just a bit, but it wasn’t too bad.
“Drop the shorts,” Tamara told her, but with the duct tape around her belly, Michi couldn’t bend over that well, and her shorts hung up on her knees.
Tamara had to reach over and knock them down so Michi could step out. Doug and Tamara then proceeded to tape pads to her thighs and butt, leaving bulges where previously there had been none. When they were finished, they both stepped back to check their work.
“I don’t know, it might be enough. Let’s get her dressed,” Tamara said.
“Hey, ‘her’ is right here in front of you,” Michi grumbled, but without conviction.
Wrapped up, Michi couldn’t dress herself, so both of her roommates had to pull on the pants and shirt being careful to leave all the pads in place. She sat down as Doug pulled a pair of Giraffes out of a bag.
Oh great, with me all bundled up, they want me to wear 12 cm platforms? She thought.
But when Doug slid on the shoes, she was surprised that her feet went in farther than she expected. She stood up, and she felt like she was standing on the floor itself, not on the elevated soles.
“Hollowed out,” Doug said with a smile. “Makes you look shorter than you really are to any surveillance.”
“Is all of this really necessary?” Michi asked. “Isn’t this overkill? You’ve got me a new face, after all.”
“I told you this would change your life. They’ve got recordings of you, and your body, your posture, your gait, everything will have been entered into the system. All the surveillance cameras will have been programmed to alert on anyone who fits those parameters. So it’s not just the face. We have to change everything.”
He took the shoes back off, put something inside each one, then put them back on her.
“OK, walk,” he told her.
“Ow!” she exclaimed as something dug into her feet. “What did you put in there?”
“Just an insert to make your gait different.”
“You mean that really works?” Michi asked.
“Yeah, why?”
Doug never knew about the two attacks on jacks, and Michi and Tamara had decided to keep that secret.
“I don’t know. I guess I thought that was only in the spy flicks,” she said instead as Tamara silently mouthed “I told you” behind Doug’s head.
“OK, I think we’re ready. Go take a look in the mirror,” Doug told her.
Michi walked into Tamara’s room and to the big, full-length mirror there. In front of her was a slightly dumpy-looking girl, not really fat, but not slim either. She turned on the new spoofer face, and the dumpy-looking girl turned into a dumpy-looking middle-aged woman. The face was not too terribly different from hers, but it had lost the slightly Asian-cast her real face had.
“Yes, you’re beautiful. But we’ve got to get going,” Tamara said, leaning against the doorframe. “The NIP won’t wait.”
“You still think this is a good idea?” Michi asked her.
“No, I’m not sure. But risk and rewards, like Doug said. We’ve got to make a move sometime, and now, you’re hot,” Tamara responded.
“But you
don’t have to go. Why risk it?”
“I couldn’t get to your little ambush, so it’s my turn. ’Sides, if this is a trap, then they’ll get my identity out of you.”
“I wouldn’t talk,” Michi said.
“Everyone talks. Don’t let the flicks fool you,” Tamara said.
“You two done? We’ve got to get moving,” Doug said, poking his head in the bedroom.
Michi and Tamara hugged, then Michi left the room and made her way to the street. The other two would be following in a few minutes. She slowly walked to the rendezvous point, just a woman on an afternoon stroll. She would have felt better meeting at night, but the curfew made that impossible.
She stopped for a doughnut, and there, sipping some coffee, was an old lady wearing a green neck scarf. Michi tried not to stare at her contact. She nibbled at her doughnut, but when the old woman got up, Michi was only half-finished. She slammed the rest down, and after a minute, left the shop.
The old lady was about 30 meters down the sidewalk and Michi slowly followed, looking in store windows, trying to seem inconspicuous. The woman turned the corner, and when Michi reached it, she saw the woman stepping into an apartment building. Michi hurried forward and stepped in as well. The woman was gone, the access door closed.
Michi didn’t have a code, nor did she know an apartment number to ring to get buzzed up. She tentatively reached out and pushed the door, and to her relief, it opened. She stepped inside, and the old woman was waiting for an elevator. Michi joined her, and they rode to the 32nd floor. The woman got out without saying a word, and Michi, not knowing what else to do, followed her. Halfway down the hall, a door opened and an arm reached out to pull Michi in. Her heart pounded as a hooded man stood there. He quickly ran a portable scanner over her and must have been satisfied, because he motioned for Michi to enter the apartment.
“Michi, dear. So glad to see you,” Cheri said, giving Michi a kiss on each cheek.
This was the first time they had seen each other in person since the broadcast. Michi had made a recording, giving a full report, and that had been given to the chapter chairman, but they hadn’t had time to discuss things in more detail.
Rebel (The United Federation Marine Corps) Page 14
