"Impossible. Impossible. Wha—wh-what's this?" Kaname struggled terribly to suppress a hysterical scream.
"Kaname! Stop that! Look at me!" Kurz barked, bringing Kaname back to Earth.
She realized that she had torn the chest of her gown.
"What? What did I—? Wow, it looks like maybe I'm a little messed up. Ha ha ha. Ha ha." she attempted to make small talk while concealing her chest, but her voice sounded dead.
"Listen, Kaname. Don't think about that anymore. Forget the whole thing. Completely—ugh!" Kurz's face twisted in pain.
"You okay?"
After a moment, he said: "No, I'm not really." He tried to lift his head, but he couldn't really manage it. "Ah, this sucks. Son of a bitch, I can't believe I'm immobile at a time like this."
Moaning over his own helplessness, Kurz's blue eyes grew damp.
"It can't be helped." Kaname leaned in to wipe his tears. "You're hurt pretty bad."
"It really does suck. If I felt any better at all, I could admire it more carefully."
"Admire what?"
"Your cleavage."
When Sousuke came down the mountain, he could see the farmlands.
After creeping in, he extracted some engine oil from a decomposing tractor. He wanted gasoline, but the current economic crisis kept most tanks empty. The fact that this area still had a tractor at all indicated it was a prosperous region.
Holding the oil-filled, polyethylene tank, he ran to the farm's fallow land. His side throbbed, but it wasn't so bad that he couldn't endure it.
After dumping out the oil on the field, he checked his watch: Oh-three twenty-eight.
Here goes.
Taking the survival kit from his pocket, Sousuke procured a permanganic acid tablet that normally would be used for sterilizing. But he crushed it, spread the powder on the oil, and lit the mixture with a Zippo.
After a second, the oil ignited, and the flames slowly spread.
Sting, the recon satellite, took extremely high-resolution pictures. On a clear day, it could easily read the headline on a newspaper. On a drizzly night like this, however, it would be difficult to distinguish Sousuke and friends from local soldiers. That's why Sousuke used fire letters to spell out A67ALIVE.
The A was for "Angel," Kaname's codename. The numbers were for "Urzu Six" and "Urzu 7," Kurz and Sousuke, respectively. "Alive" was self-explanatory, really.
Mindful not to leave footprints, Sousuke returned to Kurz and Kaname.
There was no need to indicate their location. If Sting saw those letters, it could follow Sousuke's fire-lit silhouette from space.
The oil fire probably would die in just a few minutes, and there was no guarantee that either allies or enemies would see it. It was, after all, a gamble.
"Arson?" asked Gauron.
Standing in front of a maintenance trailer where he was overseeing the Codarl's repairs, Gauron looked over the report from his subordinate.
"Yes, sir. We just got word that someone set fire to a field on a farm nine miles west of here."
Gauron harrumphed. He wondered if it was a diversion, but he decided that it was unlikely, as a simple fire wouldn't suffice. Regardless, he figured Kashim was the likely culprit. Even if Gauron didn't know what Kashim was up to, at least he knew the vicinity of his whereabouts.
"The military already is tightening their search radius. It's only a matter of time before we discover the escapees."
"Kill the man. As for the girl, they can do with her as they like, as long as she is not killed under any circumstances."
"Yes, sir."
"I'll be moving out soon, as well."
"In the Codarl?"
Gauron glared. "You got a problem with that?"
"C-certainly not, sir. But Doctor Kaneyama said you shouldn't use it much in front of the local soldiers."
"It isn't forbidden. Besides, we're up against Mithril—and Kalinin. There could be trouble still."
According to the naval report, Mithril's submarine already had fled away from the coast to nearby Chinese waters. Even if they used their urgent deployment boosters, dispatching a rescue party seemed impossible. But still…
"Better safe than sorry. Get me?"
Right on cue, an engineer closed the maintenance hatch and shouted that the repairs were complete.
When Sousuke returned, Kaname seemed relieved to see him. She tightly clutched her shirt across her chest, where it had been torn open somehow. Kurz appeared to be sleeping.
"How is he?"
"Unexpectedly well, I'd say. His type lives a long time."
Unsure what that meant and how to respond, Sousuke took a seat on a tree root.
"Well? Will it work?"
"I don't know. It's a long shot, at best. I still think it would be easier for you to escape alone."
"Too late now. I don't feel like reconsidering, anyway."
"I know. I won't say it again."
"Thanks."
In the distance, helicopter rotors hacked at the sky. They didn't seem to be approaching—and ten seconds later, the sound faded.
Like a desolate maze with no exit, the dark woods were gloomy.
Kaname broke the silence. "Hey, if… if we get back okay, what are you going to do, Sagara?"
"Take on the next mission."
"You mean you'll go off somewhere else? You won't go to school anymore?"
"Probably not. It was just a temporary assignment for me to be a student. It definitely would get in the way of other duties. I'll probably just disappear."
"Oh…""
Sousuke's ears perked up as he heard footsteps.
They were much quicker and quieter than a human's. Wild breathing suggested it was some kind of animal—maybe a dog.
Then, from a distance, he also heard human footsteps: three, four people, maybe more.
Sousuke held his breath; meanwhile, the sound of twigs snapping underfoot grew closer. There was a frenzied howl.
"What's—"
"They're coming. Stay down," commanded Sousuke.
Almost immediately, two dogs leapt out from behind a rock. It was too dark to tell what kind of dogs they were, but they were big and black and headed straight at them.
Without hesitation, Sousuke fired. The dogs yelped. One of the dogs had enough momentum that it slammed into a squealing Kaname. However, a moment later, it writhed and died.
Hearing the shots, the pursuit squad opened fire from somewhere in the forest. White lines traced bullet paths, rocks shattered, and dead branches rained from the trees.
"They followed you, you dumbass!" reprimanded Kurz.
"Only a matter of time—can't help it," shrugged Sousuke. With their injuries and available equipment, there was no masking the scent of blood.
A soldier appeared, taking in the situation from the shadow of a huge tree. Sousuke aimed at his legs and fired once. His aim was true. Purposefully, he fired a couple of shots in the area where the soldier fell. The soldier screamed, seeking help from his comrades, and another soldier who was willing to die for his friend rushed toward the wounded one, dragging him toward a pine bower.
"There's at least two."
"Just kill 'em," grumbled Kurz. "Damn."
The enemy fire picked up. Reinforcements.
"At this rate, there'll be mechs here soon."