No, realized Sousuke. That man enjoys pointless killing. That's why he'd think to do this.
Closing the lid, Sousuke headed toward the nose of the airplane until he came to the little trap door that opened to let out the planes landing gear. From there, he knew he should be able to exit the plane.
He had to find a way to contact the de Danaan.
The machine that held Kaname was creepy and coffinlike.
It was a cylindrical tube with acrylic walls. From time to time, the pedestal that held the machine would move, filling the tube with a thrumming noise.
A strap kept Kaname's head in place while special goggles spewed images of symbols and figures at her eyes.
Star. Circle. Square. Tree. Bottle. Rod.
Occasionally, an unpleasant image would pop into view.
Instinctually, Kaname yawned. It seemed like this had been going on for a long time, although it had been only about an hour.
"Don't fall asleep!" instructed the doctor.
"Right, right."
Kaname's thoughts returned to her situation. When she had regained consciousness, she already was strapped into the machine, wearing only the blue gown. Even her underwear was gone! The thought of that creepy, disgusting man seeing her naked made her want to kick and shout, but the female doctor had insisted that she was the only one present for Kaname's clothing change.
Reflecting on her current position, Kaname realized she probably should be more frightened. After all, she was alone in a time of crisis.
And that terrorist would have shot Miss Kagurazaka if that klutz Sousuke hadn't dropped his silverware right then.
It had been a long time since Kaname felt so near to impending death. The last time she had felt the sensation was while caring for her dying mother.
Acknowledging her own mortality, Kaname knew it easily could be her turn to go next.
I might not make it home. She reconciled herself with the thought. In the corner of a storeroom that was at least a quarter of a mile from the jumbo jet, Sousuke eagerly extended his parabolic antenna. After checking the compass on his watch and mentally crunching some numbers, he adjusted the antenna and put on the headset.
Within five seconds, he was connected with Mithril's West Pacific base.
"Hello?" said a communications officer who was in charge of dispatching the calls.
Sousuke recognized her voice. "This is Urzu Seven of the de Danaan. Sergeant Sagara. B3128."
After a pause, the dispatcher confirmed his identity and asked if he was okay.
"Affirmative, Shinohara. Please connect me to the Tuatha de Danaan."
"One moment, please." And she reflected the satellite signal to reach the submarine.
"Mister Sagara! Are you okay?" asked the very familiar voice of Captain Testarossa.
"Yes, ma'am, Captain Testarossa," replied Sousuke, with much more formality than he would use to address any other girl his own age. He wasn't sure how Tessa had come to be Captain, but he understood the importance of her position and afforded her the utmost respect.
"Thank goodness! Hold on a moment, please. Lieutenant Commander!"
"Sergeant Sagara! This is Kalinin," he barked, as if Sousuke wouldn't have known. "What's going on there?"
"I'm at Sunan Air Base," reported Sousuke. "Although there are two separate opposition groups—the Japanese men who hijacked the plane and the local army—the security here is pretty low."
Sousuke then proceeded to describe in (perhaps excessive) detail the types and positions of the various weapons, the layout of the facility, and the whereabouts of the plane itself.
The officers were not surprised to hear that the terrorists took Kaname Chidori from the plane. Tessa did seem a little shocked, however, to hear about the bomb in the jet's baggage hold.
"Oh my God," she whispered.
"There's no way I can disarm it with the equipment at my disposal."
The Captain took a moment to process this. "Understood. We will consider countermeasures."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Sergeant, do you know where they're keeping Chidori?" asked Kalinin.
"Negative. I will search for her; but right now, I don't even know if she's still on the base somewhere."
"Well, keep out of harm's way. We'll need you to stay alive long enough to create a diversion."
Sousuke inferred that the de Danaan would launch a rescue operation and that his top priority was the plane passengers' safety.
"Roger."
"Thanks to you, we have a good idea of what we're up against. We'll need some time to mobilize, though. Can you contact us again—"
"At twenty-two hundred hours," suggested Tessa. "Local time."
"Roger," assented Sousuke. "One more thing, Lieutenant Commander, sir."
"Yes, what is it?"
"The leader of the hijackers—it's Gauron."
Sousuke could hear Kalinin's facial expression.
"He has changed somewhat since we fought him, but it was unmistakably him." Sousuke's use of the word 'we' predated his and Kalinin's time at Mithril.
"I thought he was dead."
"I did, too, but apparently he's not. There's a large scar on his forehead where I shot him before."
"Did he recognize you?"
"No, sir. Fortunately, my appearance has changed enough since then."
Sousuke remembered the days before his most-recent growth spurt, when his hair was long and wild, his skin dark from sun and grime.
"Okay, now the bomb makes more sense," decided Kalinin. "Don't let your guard down, Sagara."
"Roger. Urzu Seven out." Quickly dismantling his antenna, Sousuke rose to leave.
"Don't move," commanded a man with a slight accent, cocking his gun to emphasize the directive.
"What was that about?" inquired Tessa as she walked with Kalinin toward the operations meeting room.
"You mean Gauron," he stated.
"Yes. Do you know him?" She stopped just in front of the door to the meeting room, waiting for Kalinin to answer.
After a moment, he spoke somberly. "'Gauron' means 'nine dragons' in Chinese. The dangerous terrorist we call Gauron is said to have nine nationalities. To date, he is responsible for at least thirty assassinations and two aircraft explosions, but he still is completely unknown to most Western anti-terrorist organizations."
At that point, Tessa recalled that Kalinin used to belong to a Soviet Special Forces group.
"Several years ago, Sergeant Sagara and I confronted Gauron. We were hiding from the KGB, allied with some Islamic Afghani guerillas."
It was not new information to Tessa that Andrei Kalinin got caught up in a huge KGB and Soviet military conspiracy—he still was considered a deserter.
"The KGB hired Gauron to find us. One day, while I was out, Gauron attacked the guerilla village with two Arm Slaves, nearly wiping it out."
Now, this was news to Tessa.
The AS was the mightiest present-day land-war weapon. Unlike tanks, they could go just about anywhere—jungles or mountaintops, it made no difference. In the face of this weapon, a human being was as powerless as an ant.
"Many died, including innocent women and children. If I had been there, though, it wouldn't have happened."
Understanding the heaviness of the situation, Tessa just nodded.
"And so I vowed retribution. Two weeks later, I got my chance. Gauron followed us to the mountains of Pakistan. We ambushed him, using me as bait and Sousuke as sniper. There were complications, but Sousuke brought him down,"