And if Reina was telling the truth, then Nanako had been pregnant with a precious little life that had been half from her and half from me. What a tragedy that this little one was lost - I would have given anything to have seen this child, to have held him or her in my arms and shower them with love and affection. To think that Nanako and I could have been a family now and not just the two of us. Yet as painful as this realisation was to me, it must have been infinitely more painful for her; for she'd lost the little life she had carried and was left with neither me nor the child afterwards.
I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice the movement until it was too late. Reina sprang out from behind a large metal counter and smashed her rifle against my hand, sending the pistol flying from my grip. She followed this up by ramming her rifle butt into my chest, right over the spot where I'd been shot by the Skel crossbow.
I collapsed to my knees and fought to remain conscious as unbearable pain shot through me and black spots danced before my eyes. I don't know how I did it, but I somehow managed to ride out the wave of pain and remain conscious.
"That's for breaking three of my ribs," she growled, and then placed her gun against my head. "And for killing Tamura..."
I tensed, waiting for the killing shot, but she lifted her gun and fired through the open roller door at the Custodians outside instead.
"You know," I said through teeth clenched in pain, "I heard you arguing with your lieutenant. We both want the same thing."
"Which is?" she snapped.
"To destroy the cruise missiles and save Hamamachi."
She stared at me for an unnervingly long time, and then suddenly picked up a bag of explosives off the floor. "Okay then, let's rig the things and blow them sky high!"
"Actually, there's another option," said a voice from close by.
I turned around and was surprised to see David stand up from behind the flatbed truck that mounted the cruise missile.
"David Chen, you absolute idiot!" I yelled, rage at his senseless behaviour consuming me. "This mess, all those dead Custodians outside, this is all your fault!"
"I didn't have any choice," he replied angrily as he turned and helped Leigh back to his feet. "The Rangers brought him with them and told me they'd kill him if I didn't let them in when I found out where the nuke was," he explained, his eyes sending daggers in Reina's direction.
"They blackmailed you when we were back in Hamamachi?" I asked.
He nodded. "I've been in communication with them by Morse code at night ever since we got back."
"Sorry to interrupt your happy reunion, but you said there was another option, David, and we don't have much time. Sooner or later those Custodians are going to realise no-one's shooting at them and they're going to come charging in here like a pack of wounded bulls," Reina butted in.
With his arm around Leigh's waist to help him walk, David came around to our side of the truck and turned on a computer built into the side of the cruise missile's launch rail. "You said the guidance program is working, Jones, but not the detonator? How about I reprogram it so it comes down in the middle of the Southern Ocean?"
"But won't the Custodians notice you've changed it?" I asked as I walked over to Leigh and gave him a welcoming embrace. He didn't bother returning the gesture, of course, nor did I expect him too. He was not a happy boy.
"Not if we fire the missile now," David replied.
"Um, there's a roof above our heads, in case you didn't notice," I pointed out.
"It's only aluminium and Perspex sheets. I reckon a couple of shots from Corporal Reina's grenade launcher would create a big enough hole."
Reina pumped the grenade launcher beneath her rifle. "Tell me where to aim, David."
David pointed to a spot in the roof above. Reina shot two grenades and suddenly there was a gaping hole in the aluminium and Perspex sheeting.
That done, David climbed into the truck's cab, switched on the engine, and then returned to the guidance computer and starting typing at a furious speed.
"I'll send a text to Colonel Yamada to tell him what we're doing - otherwise he'll freak when we launch the missile - and then I'll discourage the Custodians from coming any closer," Reina said as she grabbed her phone and typed a quick message to the Ranger colonel, her fingers moving on the touch screen at a frenetic speed. It was a good thing she thought of that, otherwise any Rangers outside Newhome could have assumed the missile was headed for Hamamachi. After that she put the phone away, slapped another magazine into her assault-rifle and turned to go.
I grabbed her arm. "Don't kill any more Custodians."
"Whatever!" she snapped, and then moved carefully towards the roller doors, firing brief bursts from her gun as she went.
As David worked, the cruise missile's launch rail came to life and ground slowly upwards until the missile was lined up with the hole in the roof.
"You turned on the warehouse lights before, didn't you?" I asked.
"Yep," David answered. "I heard them say you were in the building, and as they were all wearing light-amplification goggles..."
"You did well..." I began to say, but was cut off by heavy machine gun fire tearing into the factory from outside, the bullets tearing through everything in its path. The Custodians must have brought up another Bushmaster!
Corporal Reina cried out in pain and I heard her collapse to the concrete floor. I took a few steps in her direction and saw her lying on the ground with blood pouring from two gaping wounds in her stomach. She was a goner - no one could survive wounds like that.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Her face contorted in agony, Reina turned and saw me. "They're launching another assault! Fire the blasted missile and get out of here - I'll hold them off!" she said between gasps for breath.
"David?" I asked urgently.
"It's ready. How long do we need to get out of the building - I presume you found some back entrance?"
I looked at Leigh and knew we wouldn't be able to run. "Five minutes."
"Right, I'll set it to launch in five minutes."
"Do it already!" I shouted and then turned to the corporal. "Reina..." I began, hesitant to leave her behind. I felt for her, to some degree. She said we'd been friends once, but she'd almost strangled my wife a few days ago, and she was a Ranger, a partner in crime with the Skel. I didn't know how to relate to her, nor to her noble act of buying us time to escape.
"Just go!" she shouted again and then began firing at a fresh wave of Custodians who were charging the factory, dropping two of them and forcing the rest to duck for cover beside the truck backed up to the loading dock.
David and I put our arms around Leigh's waist and with his arms around our shoulders, we half dragged and half carried him through the factory towards the back door. I picked up the Rangers' bag of explosives as we went past it; as I didn't want the missile's back flash igniting them. Besides, they could come in useful.
After what felt like an hour but was less than five minutes, we reached the door and rushed outside into the crisp night air.
And on cue, there was a deafening roar as the cruise missile's rocket engine came to life. A moment later the missile soared out of the hole in the factory roof and thundered across the sky in a southerly direction. We watched it until it was out of sight.
"It's done," I sighed with a relief so palpable that I felt I could reach out and touch it. But I was afforded only a moment's distraction, for then reality came crashing back down.
Nanako! I finally knew what happened to her after she'd been dropped back in Hamamachi two years ago. And she was ill again, just like she was then. I had to see her and had to see her now.
I grabbed David's arm. "I'm sorry, David, but I had to tell the Custodians you let the Rangers into the town. And as they think Leigh died in Hamamachi, you two gotta disappear. Go to that abandoned old house in Rourke Lane and hide in its concealed basement. Remember that place?"
"Yep."
"You still got the magnetic key on
you?"
"Yep."
"Good, we'll need that to escape. Shorty, Nanako and I will come and join you at the hideaway as soon as we can." I turned to Leigh. "Great to have you back, mate. How are you feeling?"
"What do you reckon? Like death warmed up," he replied, and without the sarcasm and negativity that usually accompanied everything he said, though that was probably only because he was too tired to make the effort.
I gave the bag of explosives to David to take with him, and after they'd disappeared from view, I headed back to the main road to report to Captain Smithson. However, Sergeant Xiao and his squad bumped into me when I got to the automotive factory’s rear corner.
"You’re alive, sir," he said with relief. "We heard shots in the factory after you went in, but when the Rangers kept firing at us, we figured you’d bought it."
"The Rangers are all dead, but the missile was on a countdown so I got out as fast as I could. Made it just in time too," I replied.
"Where’s it headed, I wonder?" Xiao said, eyeing me suspiciously.
"I think we can rule out Hamamachi."
The sergeant suddenly looked concerned. "Sir, Captain Smithson sent me here to inform you that Major Harris has issued warrants to arrest you, your wife, and your two forager friends - he thinks you’re all working with the Rangers."
"And you’re letting me go?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"No," Xiao said with a mischievous smile. "We never saw you."
I nodded in understanding, thanked them, and was about to rush off when the sergeant grabbed my arm. "Captain Smithson said something or someone tripped the automotive factory's ultrasonic detectors just now as well," he whispered, "I don't know who was in there with you, but just in case, you'd better doubly watch your step."
I nodded again, amazed that I'd found another humane, nonconforming Custodian, and then disappeared into the night – I had to get to Nanako before Major Harris’ cronies did.
* * *
There was no sign of Custodians when I got to my apartment block, so I raced up the stairs and slipped into our flat, which was still bathed in darkness. I could hear both Shorty and Nanako breathing so I quickly navigated my way over to the bed and switched on the bedside lamp.
They were both asleep. Nanako hadn't moved from when I last saw her, she was still curled up on the bed in a foetal position, and Shorty was sleeping on the floor at the back door.
I shook Nanako gently awake and she opened her eyes, but didn’t look at me or even acknowledge my presence.
On the way here I’d been anxious to see her so I could comfort her for her loss, for what she had been through and was going through, but anger suddenly erupted from the depths of my being. "Why didn’t you tell me about the baby?" I demanded.
Her eyes opened wide in alarm, but she didn’t speak.
"Why didn’t you tell me?" I asked again.
"Because I didn’t want you to hate me," she whispered, still refusing to meet my gaze.
"What are you talking about, why would I hate you?"
She pushed herself up to a kneeling position, but still wouldn’t look at me. Her face was pale and she looked haggard. "Because I lost our baby and it was entirely my fault! I knew I needed to eat and drink but I didn’t even try. When no one would take me back to Newhome, I just lay on my bed all day and all night, not eating, drinking or sleeping, and ‘cause of that I had a miscarriage. And I hated and despised and loathed myself for being so weak and pathetic, so that’s why I knew you’d hate me for it too if you found out."
"When did the miscarriage happen?" I asked, gently this time.
"Two years ago, today."
No wonder she was in such a state – it wasn’t just because of her fear that I didn’t love her two years ago like she thought I did, though that was certainly part of it, but because it was the anniversary of when she lost her baby. And mixed in with that was her belief, no, her fear, that if I found out what had happened, I’d stop loving her now too.
I gripped her firmly by the shoulders, wincing from the pain in my chest from the effort, thanks to Reina hitting me with her rifle. "Nanako, why did you hide these things from me? How was I supposed to…"
"There’s more," she murmured, cutting me off. "After I lost the baby, and because of what had happened to you, I was so depressed I still wouldn’t eat or drink, so they had to hospitalise me. And when I didn’t improve, they put me in a hospital for the mentally ill for three months. You see how weak and pathetic I was, Ethan? Not the picture of me you have in your mind, is it? I knew you’d hate me if I’d told you about these things, but not just hate me - but leave me like you tried to when you attempted suicide."
I was about to tell her that I didn't hate her, that I'd been angry because she hadn’t trusted me enough to tell me the truth, and because she’d leaped to the conclusion that my love was transient and couldn't be depended on. My love for her wouldn't diminish if she was sick, weak, or poor - wasn't that how marriage vows went? But as soon as I was about to explain this to her, I heard the unmistakable sound of many Custodian boots tramping on the walkway outside.
Fear exploded within my stomach when I realised I'd hesitated too long - I should have dragged Nanako out of our flat as soon as I'd gotten back.
I pulled her off the bed and onto her feet. "We gotta go - the Custodians are here to arrest us!"
Shorty woke and sprang to his feet, looking about in confusion. "What's going on, Jones - you back already?"
"Yeah, David's safe and the nuke's been sent off to the middle of an ocean somewhere, but the Custodian's think we three were working with David in letting the Rangers into town," I explained as I put my arm around Nanako and half shepherded, half dragged her towards the back door.
"Over the balcony, then?" Shorty asked, his eyes wide in fright.
The boots stopped outside the front door and there was an enormous crash as the Custodians hit the door with a portable battering ram. I almost laughed when the door held - testament to the quality of my ex-boss's handiwork.
Shorty ripped the balcony door open and we stumbled outside. I looked over the railing and strained my eyes and ears, trying to see if there were any Custodians down there, but it didn't look like it.
Another crash reverberated through the flat, this time accompanied by the sound of splintering wood. Shorty sprang over the railing and began to climb down, moving as surely and nimbly as a monkey.
"You next," I said to Nanako, who was luckily wearing shorts and over-knee black tights. If she'd been in her ankle length black dress, there was no way she'd be able to climb down.
"I can't do it," she said, her legs giving way as she sagged towards the balcony.
"Yes, you can - I'll join you and guide you all the way down!" I exclaimed as another crash smashed the front door wide open and Custodians came spilling into the flat. I pulled Nanako to her feet and helped her over the railing, and then climbed over too. And that's when I realised my folly, that thanks to my seemingly never ending chest injury, it was extremely painful to use my left arm.
I pointed to the downpipe beside Nanako. "Use the downpipe to climb down, quickly!"
She glanced up at me from beneath her long black fringe, but it was like she wasn't really there.
"Hang on, I'll help you down," I said as I edged over the top of her and then began to descend, using a combination of the railing and the pipe.
And then, at the worst possible moment, my left arm gave way and as though in slow motion, I began to fall. I tried to brace myself with my feet, but my right hand came unstuck as well, and then I was falling towards the unwelcoming ground below.
Chapter Thirty-Five
It wasn't a particularly long drop from the second story to the ground, since the apartment blocks didn't have a 'ground floor' level, but as I was falling backwards I could have easily broken my neck if I wasn't lucky. At the last moment, a pair of hands caught me, or at least, tried to catch me, and I landed in an unceremonious heap on top of Shor
ty.
I sprang back to my feet and looked up just in time to see Custodians grab Nanako and drag her roughly back over the balcony.
"No!" I screamed, about to dash off towards the front of the building.
Shorty grabbed me and yanked me roughly backwards. "Don't be stupid, Jones - we've got to get out of here!"
"But Nanako," I protested.
"You can't help her if they catch you too - now come on, use your brain and get us out of here before those Custodians come charging around that corner!"
Somehow, reason managed to force its way into my panicking, grief stricken mind and I stared into Shorty's youthful, innocent face. "Okay, follow me."
* * *
An hour later, Shorty and I joined David and Leigh in the derelict house’s hidden basement.
The basement was dark, dank, and reeked of mould and rat excrement. David and I had found the basement two years ago when out exploring after curfew one night. I don’t recall it having been this run down, though.
"Nice bolt hole you found us, Jones," Leigh scoffed when Shorty and I sat beside them on a broken, rotting wooden cupboard that had fallen on its side.
I heard him, but didn’t answer, as I was terrified for Nanako, for what the brutal Custodians could be doing to her in an attempt to get her to confess to crimes she had no knowledge of. But first and foremost, I was afraid of what they’d do to her after they finished interrogating her. Would they imprison her or execute her as a spy?
Then again, if they used Consultant Singhe when they questioned her, they’d find out pretty quick that she was innocent of those charges. Yet again, if they found out she was the one who killed Lieutenant King, that'd land her in a boat load of trouble. More, I was especially distraught because we’d been separated before I could reassure her of my love and that I wasn’t angry at her for what had happened. She had helped me immensely when she showed me how to view myself through her eyes – now it was my turn. But how could I do that when she was being held in the middle of Custodian Headquarters?
Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series) Page 45