Chapter 14

“G2, this is G1.”

“Look, I’ll be there in a second, okay?’ Joe sighed over Ken’s bracelet.

“We have to leave, now!” Ken ordered. “Birdstyle. We’ll take the G2. It’s faster.”

“What?” Joe exclaimed. “What happened?”

“Katse showed up. Kevin and Peter are down. And something’s happened to Ebony.” Ken explained, entering the garage at ISO Headquarters

The Condor rushed into the garage, already in Birdstyle. The Eagle was there to meet him, and they continued their conversation as they both got into the G2 and left as quickly as possible.

“What happened to Ebony?” Joe demanded. There was a strange quality to his voice that Ken couldn’t place.

“I don’t know.” Ken admitted. “But I think it’s bad. Jun seemed upset about it.”

“Jun knows about this?” Joe shouted, raising his bracelet to his lips. “G2 to G3! Respond now!”

“It’s no use.” Ken said, shaking his head. “I think she’s turned off her bracelet.”

“Why the hell would she do that?”

“I suspect that she’s entered the Galactor base by herself, against orders.” Ken sighed.

“Damn!” Joe banged on the steering wheel, causing the G2 to swerve momentarily into oncoming traffic, before the Condor recovered control.

“Where is this base?”

“Apparently it’s under the tea house.” Ken replied. “Katse took Nick in there, and Jun thinks he might kill our Mr. Frye.”

“I don’t think that would be a big loss.” Joe grumbled.

“Nick has the data about the Loronium.” Ken pointed out. “That could be very valuable to the ISO.”

“If that bastard had anything to do with what’s happened to Ebony, I’m going to kill him myself.” the Condor growled. “Data or no data.”

88888

The Swan moved quietly along the corridors of the base. As Galactor bases went, this one appeared to be small, with a low personnel complement. Jun suspected that it had been built because of the tea house on top, as the Secret Garden had been a party of Utoland’s cultural history for nearly three centuries.

She heard footsteps, and so the Swan ducked into a nearby room, closing the door quietly behind her. Unfortunately, the metal it was constructed of was too thick to allow her to hear what was going on outside. Jun simply counted to fifty, then opened the door a crack, to check the hallway.

The corridor was empty, so the Swan resumed her search for Nick and Katse.

88888

“Did you hear anything back there?” Yoku asked. “I could have sworn that there was a door closing.”

“So what?” Ana snapped. “There are all kinds of soldiers on this base. They’re allowed to close doors, aren’t they?”

“I suppose…” Yoku said, looking embarrassed.

“Don’t take it out on poor Yoku.” Seiko said to Ana. “You’re just mad because you’ve been ordered to kill Mr. Owashu, instead of jump into bed with him.”

“Yeah, poor Ana never had a chance to check out Ken-san’s mighty weapon.” snickered Yoku. “And after all of her bragging…”

“Well, after we kill him, maybe we can look and see how mighty it really is.” Seiko laughed. “Maybe we’re saving you from a night of misery, Ana!”

“Just shut up!” Ana growled angrily.

“Oh, Ken-san, let me feed you my sashimi!” laughed Yoku, doing a fair imitation of Ana’s ‘baby-talk’ voice. “I made it just for you….”

“Shut up!”” Ana cried.

“She’s right.” sighed Seiko. “We’re there. Yoku, you and I will take on that bodyguard of his, and Ana can have Ken-san all to herself.”

Ana glared angrily at her companions, but didn’t say anything.

The three women walked out into the tea room, nearly tripping over their kimono as they attempted the last step up from the hole in the floor.

“Ugh… what a mess!” Seiko wrinkled her nose in disgust at seeing the bodies of Ebony, Peter and Kevin on the floor.

“Hey… isn’t that the Ivory girl we got rid of a couple of months ago?” Ana exclaimed.

“Sure looks like her.” Seiko shrugged. “But at this point it doesn’t matter. She’s dead.”

“I suppose.” Ana shrugged.

“Good riddance to this garbage.” Yoku kicked at Peter’s stomach. “Can you believe this jerk actually tried to get me into bed? Why, he’s nothing but a second class sergeant!”

“I don’t do bloodstains.” Ana sighed, noting the large red pool under Ebony’s corpse. “And even if I did, we wouldn’t have time to clean up anyhow. Let’s meet Mr. Owashu and his ‘associate’ in the entryway, and bring them into the other chamber.”

“We’d better be fast!” Seiko pointed out. “I think I heard them.”

The three girls hurried out into the entryway, but they were not expecting the visitors who had arrived.

“Gatchaman!” Ana cried.

88888

Jun moved stealthily down the corridor, looking for any sign of Katse and Nick. Oddly, she didn’t encounter any other Galactor personnel, but then, this didn’t appear to be a large base.

At the end of the main corridor, Jun came upon a large door with the Galactor devil symbol on it. Unfortunately, there was no way to see or hear what lay beyond. Jun didn’t like to go in unprepared.

Fortunately, it looked like there was a ceiling vent not too far back down the hallway. The Swan smiled to herself. Galactor base design was so predictable. She threw her yo-yo around the grate, pulling lightly until it was dislodged. Moments later she was inside of the vent, closing it behind her.