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The Bubblegum Crisis Center > Extras > Fan Fiction

Instrumantatum Vocalle 2040 - Burning Bridges

Written by Christopher J Turley

It was calm, no sound. It seemed as if the sounds of the city had gone mute as if it were expecting something. She clicked the send button and knew at that moment that there was no coming back, no way to stop what was going to happen, none what-so-ever. From this moment on her life was forfeit. As she made her way back to the van, with Karl, Rico and Jobs waiting patiently, yet uneasily, she resigned herself to the fact that come what may, she was marked. She shed a single tear, wiping it away quickly. She hadn't wanted it to come to this, but it had, and now she had set into motion powers that she could hardly fathom.
"Done?" Karl asked as she hopped back up into the cab, the warm heated air soothing her from the frigid November night.
"It's done, let's go."

Brian J. Mason muttered angrily. He'd just been woken up. Checking his clock he noted the hour, and was made only angrier.
"It's three AM, this better be good." He fumed to his secretary boomer.
"Yes sir. I have an Antonio Mythos on line one. He say's its urgent."
"Antonio." He hissed and swung his legs out of bed, waving impatiently for the cordless.
"Yes?"
"Brian. How's tricks?" Came Tony's chipper reply.
"Tony. And what do I owe this displeasure?"
"You've got a message on your e-mail. I think you might want to see it." The line went dead.
'God damn him and his games' he cursed to himself. He wiped the remaining sleep from his eyes and pushed himself up from the bed and made his way over to his desk. Sitting he turned on his desktop and waited impatiently as it went thru its start up. Finally he opened his e-mail application and sure enough there was one new message, sent not more than ten minutes ago. He started a trace than opened the waiting message.
A window opened up and displayed a web cam view of the Westward span of the bridge leading from Tokyo proper to Genom Island. The sound of the hard drive working shifted his attention and he tapped a few keys and ran a diagnostic. He blinked when it showed that a self-extracting file had just been opened.
"What the?"
In the small window there was a brilliant flash and he blinked and recoiled instinctively. Before he could ask his secretary what was going on he heard a faint BOOM, the building shook shortly afterward. His surprise was drowned out by the alarms for the island going off, all of them. He looked back at the window and saw that the flash was being followed by a series of other flashes, now recognizable as explosions, and with each a faint BOOM and a shudder from the structure.
"Oh my god!" He whispered as he watched the bridge span undulate than collapse.
His phone rang.
"This is Mason."
"What is going on Mason?"
Rosencroitz! He swore inwardly, and he didn't sound happy.
"Sir. Sir it, we've just been attacked. The west bridge has been destroyed." As he spoke there was a tremendous explosion from the bridge and the building shuddered as an immense fireball blossomed into the sky. Gas Main 4 from the mainland to the Island had just blown.
There was a pause, eerie and quite unpleasant.
"Deal with it Mason, immediately."
"Yes sir." But the line went dead before he could finish.
He set the phone back into its cradle and turned his attention back to the e-mail. There was a text message attached. He scanned it, and enabled a security program to block any executable files from initializing, than read.

"We know Genom ordered the kidnapping, we have proof. This is your only warning. Do not attempt to repeat this mistake."

"That bitch!" he yelled.
"Get me Donovan! Now!"
His secretary nodded dutifully and connected him.
"Donovan here." Came the groggy reply. The vid-phone showed that the chain explosions must have awoken him up and was in the process of waking up. Seeing Mason's angry face on the other end completed the process.
"Mr. Mason! I, it's a pleasure..."
"Stifle it Donovan! I want you to tell me, exactly, what did you do?"
"What did I do? Regarding sir?" He obviously hadn't put two and two together, yet.
"Regarding Natasha Romonov and her cronies."
"I...well..."
"Out with it!"
"Sir." He recovered. "Well, I had one of my connections seize two of their friends, to use as leverage. You said to deal with them."
"And tell me Donovan. What the hell went wrong?"
He could see Donovan turn red.
"What the HELL went wrong!" He repeated; the venom evident in his voice.
"Yes sir. We seized them as planned and then sent, thru untraceable means, a message to them, an ultimatum. Uh... it seems that they were able to locate them, at the Shinjuku Group's safe house in Yashikawa sooner than we'd anticipated and rescued them. From what I've been able to learn no one on the Shinjuku side made it out alive. Then there was that rocket attack on one of their other assets, I've tried to make contact with them but, sir, and I've not been able to get a reply."
"I thought you assured me that you had this under control you ass!"
"Sir?"
"Did you or did you not hear those explosions?"
"Well, yes sir."
"Well, apparently, they knew it was you, you blundering idiot!"
"Sir, I...I apologize, I..."
"I'll deal with you later, Mr. Donovan." He hung up.

Across the bay, near the coast, windows were blown out, people were knocked to the ground, and car alarms were set off, a few vehicles, nearest the seashore had been tossed onto their sides and a Semi, colored in weathered pink paint with PRISS in yellow letters three feet high was lifted off it's rear wheels and pushed forward ten feet, blowing the windows out of the cab and nearly snapping it from the trailer. Inside, anything that wasn't nailed down was thrown towards the rear than settled into shattered piles throughout the ad hoc living area. Priss, wide eyed sat up in what was left of her bed, and noted she was still under the covers. Pulling the blanket back so she could see what had happened the loud crash of her refrigerator finally toppling onto its side made her jump slightly. She was relieved however to see her guitar, lying haphazardly against the wall, was unharmed, although her CD rack had toppled, depositing her collection across the floor.
She made her way to the door, kicking away a chair that was blocking it, slid it open and walked out. Her chaise, couch, table and beach umbrella were gone, and looking around she saw them a good fifty feet down the alley, except the beach umbrella, it was shredded and dangling lazily from a nearby power line. There was a spark, than it caught fire, and as she blinked, finally fell to the ground with a crash. Noticing a bright yellow and orange glow coming from behind her she turned and was presented with an unbelievable sight. The entire west bridge to Genom Island; both spans, were gone, replaced by a mass of burning and twisted debris.
"Holy shit! What the...?"
Gouts of flame shot upward as the combustible elements used in its construction were consumed sending billowing clouds of thick black smoke into the air, only to be illuminated by the raging fires below, completing the image of devastation. Secondary explosions as ancillary gas lines ruptured flashed randomly accompanied by a dull whump. Overhead, a low flying fast moving helicopter thundered past, it's red and blue police lighting flashing as it flew towards the burning horizon.
"What the fuck happened?"

Tasha and her team pulled into the parking lot beneath the HiC some thirty minutes later and made their way upstairs. Bobo met them at the rear entrance.
"Ma'am, something's happened. All the police officers that where here all got called away."
"I see. Up the security three fold, close shop and break out the heavy weapons."
"Yes ma'am. If you don't mind me asking..." His voice trailed off when her gaze told him he'd best not.
"Yes Ma'am, right away."

Upstairs as they entered the living area Linna was awake, looking wide-eyed and worried. The lights to the apartment hadn't been turned on; they hadn't needed to be as the room was bathed in a warm yellow glow. The TV was on to one of the news channels.
"Tash, um... what's going on, we heard some bangs?"
"You really want to know?" Tasha replied smoothly.
"Well, no, I mean, aww shit, yeah, you better tell me." She relented with a worried sigh. In response Tasha pointed to the news and sure enough the Special Report was already covering the "Terrorist Attack" on the west bridge.
Linna turned to her friend and gave her a look of concerned disbelief.
"They kidnapped you sweetie."
Linna sighed.
"You're not angry are you?"
She sighed again and managed a brave smile.
"No, I suppose not." The rest of her thought was interrupted by Tasha and Karl's pager going off calling for a general recall of all ADP forces. Switching his off, Karl turned to Tasha's friend and motioned with his hand.
"You have your gun right?"
Blinking a few times Linna nodded and went back into the office and returned with it.
"Good, keep it handy." He replied.
Tasha turned to Rico and Jobs.
"Rico, Jobs, guard her with your lives, please." She added with a pleading smile.
"Roger that." Rico replied and with Jobs beside him, went to the windows, looked out, than drew the armored shades down as Tasha tossed Linna her bulletproof vest.
"I gotta go sweetie. I'll be back soon."

"Be careful sweetheart." She whispered as she watched Tasha leave.

Halfway between Osaka and Tokyo, Tony and the occupants of the limo he was in armed up. He turned to meet the questioning gazes of the kids and Elise smiled sardonically. They'd left the bar they'd been drinking at in quite a hurry after he'd made a phone call.
"What's going on?" Trish asked.
In response Tony turned on the limo's TV set and watched the news for a few minutes.
"Eh heh." Tony managed. The girls watched the set for a few minutes than turned from it to Tony and back again a few times with bewildered looks on their faces. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure he had something to do with it. Their perplexed looks soon gave way to conspiratorial giggles as they digested the events playing out before them.
"That's my girls." He beamed, and then called the HiC to check on things. Elise just rolled her eyes as she chambered a round and set her pistol into her holster, which, of course was on safe.

At the ADP building Tasha all but ran to the CIC and checked in. Her duty officer briefed her and she nodded at the 'news'.
"Get all the Det's mobilized and armed and contact Genom tower and see if there's anything we can do to assist."

The next hour or so was a flurry of activity. Four of the five available Det's had been mobilized along with an EOD and SAR team. There had been explosives found on the East Bridge; and Genom wanted them removed, naturally she obliged. She'd called Col. Davidson to get his take and to request some satellite coverage of the area. He agreed, also informing her that every military base in Japan, US and Japanese alike had just gone to THREATCON Charlie. Then the waiting began. She was informed that Tony had made it safely back to the HiC and was shoring up security there for whatever reprisal may come.
She sat back into her chair and sighed, and yawned. She found herself in a unique position. Here she was as the Intelligence Director working a 'terrorist' action like mad, and realized that for the first time in her life she had all the answers, every detail, and every nuance down to motive, method of delivery, timing, and execution. An intelligence analyst's bonanza, but she couldn't say a word. She laughed at the irony as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, massaging away some of the tension. Some eight hours later things began to calm down some, and the rescue teams and other emergency services had settled into a well-oiled rhythm. Of course Genom, now having recovered from the shock of the cataclysmic blow they had just suffered had began to revert to SOP, or as Tasha often joked when referring to Genom; Selfish Overbearing Procedures, and had 'asked' all ADP assets to pull out as they were 'no longer required.' Which to her meant, get the hell out so we can operate without you pests breathing down our necks. Then the first monkey wrench was tossed into the mix.
"This just in!" Came the news report. "A Genom executive has just been shot dead by an ADP Firebee as he was attempting to arrive to work. We go now to a witness on the scene." The frame cut to a visibly shaken Genom security official.
"We were doing security checks and all of a sudden we noticed one of those ADP Firebee's swing in close, and then it fired. We looked around for what it could be shooting at and then it flew off. That's when we saw Mr. Yamamoto clutching his chest. There was blood everywhere, it was horrible."

"Typical!" Tasha muttered. She picked up the phone after checking to see that all the Firebee's were already on their way back, they, like the rest of the ADP's assistance, no longer desired by Genom Security Services.
She made a call down to Det 3's ready room and was pleased when Sgt. Yamaguchi answered, she'd sent her Detachment, along with Det. 4 and 1 out first to help keep traffic away from the western entrance to the bridge, and apparently they'd just arrived back from the scene.
"Sgt. Yamaguchi, please send Section 1 to the flight line with their firearms. We have a situation."
Next to him to other members of Det.3 watched as he nodded and uttered monosyllabic replies to her orders. He hung up and rubbed his temples shaking his head, exhaling noisily in exasperation.
"The boss wants a security detail to the flight line now! All pilots returning are to go into pattern until security is on scene. I want every pilot taken to debrief and the gun camera and flight data recorders pulled for review."
"What's up boss?" Kinkaid asked.
"Section one, back in gear ladies and head up to the flight line pronto." He turned to Kinkaid.
"Apparently one of those news stations out there claims one of our flyboys put a few rounds into a Genom exec on the bridge." Then he turned back to Section 1.
"You're to secure the pilots, and recorders of every Firebee. Now Move!"
He waved them along, hustling them out and up and sighed. He turned to the rest of the Det and pulled his helmet off.
"Get some rest but don't go anywhere. I've got a feeling that the shit's about to get deep."
As her orders were followed she called down to Investigations and asked them to dispatch teams to Narita International Airport, Iruma and Shingawa AB as well as a team to Yakota AFB. Their ATC tapes should show what really happened. She picked up the phone and made a phone call to the Chief.
"Sir, I've a statement I want to make, I think it'll stymie the BS coming out of the Tower regarding this Firebee incident."
"All right, but tread lightly."
"Yes sir."

A few minutes later the Channel 6 news flashed a Special Update and the talking head introduced the story.
"We have just received a statement form the ADP regarding this heinous tragedy." A file picture of her, not her best side she mused, appeared with 'Natasha Romanov: Director of Intelligence ADP 18th HQ' underneath.
"In regards to the Firebee shooting, first I'd like to say that no such thing happened, but the possibility is being investigated as we speak, moreover any information we do gather will be presented to the various news agencies as soon as we get it. Secondly, referring to the Security Guards statement of Mr. Yamamoto clutching his chest, I find it hard to believe that a Firebee would do that. As you know, our Firebee's are armed with a 20mm rotary cannon, or Gatling gun. These weapons are designed to be employed against vehicles and of course boomers. If Mr. Yamamoto was struck with one of these rounds, well, at the risk of sounding gory, he wouldn't have much of a chest left to clutch."
The talking head returned on screen with an almost queasy expression on her face.
"Well, there you have it..."

As she waited for word back from the detectives sent to retrieve the tapes she sat wondering. She knew that Genom would do something, but their opening move perplexed her. She wasn't expecting a 'Wag the Dog'. She smiled thinly, maybe her 'ultimatum' had really worked, that they were only doing this to shift blame inside the tower. She checked her watch; enough time had passed for at least two of her teams to reach their destination. She called the Narita team first.
"Richards, Natasha. What's the story?"
"Well ma'am, they say that we've already picked up the tapes."
"Already picked..." Her voice trailed off as his words sunk in. Her earlier theory wasn't wrong, but she hadn't taken it far enough. There was shifting of blame going on all right, all onto the ADP.
"Get what you can then hold position."
"Yes ma'am."
She called the other teams and was bolstered by the fact that the Iruma team had arrived before any Trojan horses. The same for Yakota, but Shingawa AB had been a bust. Her phone rang.
"CIC."
"Ma'am, it's Richards. Their security people are telling us that an ADP cruiser showed up and the two occupants took the tapes, said you sent them."
"Okay, get me plates and pictures gentlemen, we're being had."
On the other end her words caused an involuntary gulp of concern from Richards as he closed the line.
Picking up her secure she called up to Sergei in the Beriev above.
"Sergei, can you head over to Narita and look for an errant ADP cruiser for me?"
"Mozhna? Da." He replied. 'Can I? Of course.'
As she hung up she called Tony.
"Hey there queen bee."
"Tony. I need you to head over to Narita and help Sergei find an ADP cruiser..." She filled him in on the situation and left it at that. Tony would handle the rest.
During the lull, she took a look at the big screen. The Beriev was half way there and she knew that Tony would be leaving the HiC momentarily. If they could nab this imposter, and better yet prove Genom complicity, this blame game would be over before it started. The Beriev checked in and she recognized the voice as the observer, he spoke better English.
"Blue One to Totem Pole. We have that ADP cruiser located. It's stationary and burning on the East dock...number fourteen near Harumi."
She swore to herself.
"Tell me we didn't see that one coming neh? Okay divert to Shingawa and see if we can't find the other one."
"Other one?' The observer replied.
"Yup, there's two so you better hustle before we find that one BBQ'd as well."
Before she could call, Tony's voice piped thru the CIC overhead.
"Mobile 1 to Queen bee, I'm heading there as well." She smiled, blushing slightly, it wasn't her favorite moniker in the world, and aside from the implication of royalty and command she figured that it was more a jibe at her sexuality than anything else. Oh well, she sighed, too late to start bitching about it now. As she stood there the Chief approached.
"How's it going?"
"Could be better. I think we're going to need a press conference sometime soon. This information war just kicked into high gear."
"The tapes?"
"Yup. I figure Genom is gonna doctor them up a bit to make us look real bad. We're going to need a forum to get the truth out. Besides, I'm sure the PR department is most likely beating the media off with sticks anyway. Might as well give them what we want."
"Don't you mean 'they'?" He smiled.
"'They' want a scoop. 'We' want to give them one, so who's really controlling who here?"
"Supply and demand neh?"
"Something like that. Either way, we gain the initiative and at the same time show we're not trying to hide anything. At any rate, I've got the recorder footage being looked at from our birds, I'm pretty confidant we won't find anything incriminating."
He eyed her cautiously. She sensed that and smiled at him.
"It's not like that Nick, I don't need to doctor our tapes because they don't need to be doctored."
"Well, good." He chuckled. "You were beginning to worry me there for a second."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to."
The overhead blearing to life interrupted them.
"Blue one to Totem Pole, we got the second cruiser. It's toast."
"Great." She muttered. "Okay, return to original patrol pattern."
She looked over at the chief.
"Well, looks like the bad guys win that round."
Nene walked up behind them and cleared her throat, letting them know she was there.
"Go ahead Sergeant."
"Ma'am, the pilots are all done debriefing and the tapes are almost done being reviewed."
"Excellent, keep me informed." Then she turned back to the chief.
"Well I guess I'd better get out of your hair then." He joked.
She called the Yakota and Iruma teams and were notified that they we're just about to head out. She smiled again; she'd timed it right, gauging her officer's speed, and that of the bases Public Relations offices. She'd asked them to ask the respective bases PR departments if they would dispatch a uniformed officer as well as an escort, to ensure the data reached the ADP building untouched. They'd agreed. As an afterthought she dispatched a few cleared Firebee's to provide additional cover, just in case. Weighing her options, and the evidence she was about to receive, and the evidence that Genom was due to release, she knew that it would quickly degenerate into a game of he said she said. She needed some irrefutable proof from a source above reproach. She called Colonel Davidson at Camp Zama.
"You're kidding right?"
"No sir. That's what happened, and that's what I think they're going to do."
"Jesus Romanov! You sure know how to land smack dab into the middle of a shit storm don't you?"
"It's a gift sir." She replied, allowing herself a subdued laugh.
"I don't think I need to tell you that we're still at THREATCON Charlie here, and so is every single one of our bases from here to Kuwait."
"Yes sir, I'm aware."
"You don't sound too concerned." He huffed. He wasn't angry with her, just the situation, he sighed, hell, she was just doing her job, he'd have asked for proof too, where he in her boots.
"Either something else will happen or not, besides, you're at THREATCON Charlie, only step up from there is Delta?"
She wasn't being snippy, she was right; Threat Condition Delta was the highest level of defense for a US military installation, basically stating that a threat was 'imminent'. The only way they could do anything more would be if they had specific intelligence as to the exact nature of the threat.
"Okay, I'll get the hardcopy to you. Anything else?"
"An escort for it would be recommended as well as a Public Relations officer to make a showing, he doesn't have to say anything, just pop the disk in. I've got to prove to these people that we really have nothing to hide."
"Understandable. You owe me Major."
"Yes Colonel." She replied.

"So how's everything going?" Sgt. Takihama asked. He was one of the Technicians tasked with going over the twenty odd data recorders from the Firebee's.
"On number twelve now." His assistant replied as she hooked cables from the black box to the interrogation device.
"Jeez, what a crock! We're not gonna find anything. I just heard from the boys in ordnance that all the ammo's accounted for."
"Really?" His assistant quipped.
"Yeah." He sighed.
"Sir?" He turned; Cpl. Tekura was standing there.
"What is it?"
"Do you know where Kenji is?"
"Yeah, he went to head." He answered with a wave of his hand, and turned back to his female coworker.
"I'm telling you this is such bull shit."
"The work or the reason we're doing it." She asked.
"Both." He exhaled.

* * *

Threat Condition Delta, not a bad idea. She was about to make that call when the building shook.
"What the..." She walked calmly from her office to the CIC floor. No use showing panic; even if you were startled. It did no good to rattle the troops more than they already were.
"Report."
Nene hustled up to her, her eyes wide.
"Easy Sergeant. What happened?"
"Yes ma'am. The front gate called up, a car just exploded in front of the building."
Tasha bit her lip in thought.
"Okay. Seal it up, I want the building and the surrounding streets locked down, no one in or out, and do a head count. Take us to THREATCON Delta."
'Goddamn it' she swore to herself, where was this going? What do they hope to gain from that? An alarm klaxon signifying a catastrophic event had just occurred pierced the CIC and she looked at the big screen. The indicator light was over the Tokyo Metro HQ a few blocks away. She noticed one of the news channels go to a Special Report and tuned her headset to the feed from that screen.
"Another bomb has exploded in front of the Metropolitan Police Building. Sources near the site say that a van exploded a few minutes ago, and that there are many injured, there are no reports of any fatalities yet..."
"Nene! Get on the horn with Metro and see if they need any assistance."
"I'm on with them now Ma'am."
She nodded. I was beginning to make sense now. A bomb here, one in front of Metro; this with half her front liners still on their way back from Chiba prefecture not to mention the people she'd sent out to gather the Air Traffic Control tapes. They were trying to stretch the ADP thin.

Armed Frontliners, two of them, hustled into the Debriefing area. Sgt. Takihama turned towards them.
"What the hell's going on? What happened?"
"A bomb just detonated in front of the building. Is everyone here all right?"
"A what? Holy shit! Uh...yeah, we're all fine."
"Is everyone accounted for? No one outside taking a smoke break?"
"No." He looked around the workspace and noticed that Kenji's terminal was unmanned.
"Well wait. One of our guys is in the can, he should be back in a few minutes."
"Check on him." The senior Frontliner said and his compatriot made his way down the hall.
"Was anyone hurt?" Sgt. Takihama asked.
The front liner took his helmet off and sighed, wiping some sweat from his brow.
"Yeah, a few people got banged up pretty good. No one died though, if that's what you mean."
His assistant sighed in relief as behind them Cpl. Tekura called out to the room.
"Hey, has anyone seen the recorder for Tango Fourteen?"
Sgt. Takihama's face blanched, Shit! Director Romanov was gonna kill him. The second Frontliner returned.
"Crapper's clean, no one's there."
"Oh fuck!" Sgt. Takihama and the senior Frontliner chorused.

Tasha's head snapped up as she heard the distinct wail of the S-Alarm. Security Breach. Her headset crackled to life.
"Commander..." She recognized the voice as one of Section 1's troops. "...we've got a situation. One of the technicians is missing along with the data recorder for Tango Fourteen. I hit the alarm and we're looking for him now."
She took a deep breath and nodded. Now it made complete sense. The bomb in front of the ADP building was a diversion to get their man out. The bomb in front of Metro was to either tie them up to keep them out of a search, or to avoid looking like they were playing favorites, all this plus the fact that they were attempting the wear her thin. She still had a feeling that there was more going on. She had the small picture, but the big picture eluded her. She knew they wanted the ADP shut down, and more or less why, but what were they planning for afterward, that she didn't know.
"Roger that, keep me informed."
"Ma'am?" Came Nene's voice from behind her.
"Yes Nene?"
"Just thought you should know, the press conference is about to start. And our people are half a klick out with the ATC tapes."
She nodded again.
"Make sure that footage get to the CIC ASAP, and see to the liaison officers, I'm sure they've got questions."
"Yes ma'am, right away."
Her headset crackled to life again.
"Hey Tash. I heard about the fireworks. What's going on?"
"Hey Tony. Not much aside from what you've heard. We've got a convoy coming from Camp Zama that should be here in about fifteen minutes, aside from that, the tapes we did get are on their way up, they're just pulling in."
"Thank God for small favors neh? Look, lemme know where that convoy is, I wanna link up with them, just in case.
"You're beginning to sound like me."
"Well, you'll be polite enough not to tell anyone."
"Yeah, sure. I'm transmitting the route to your PDA."
There was a pause.
"Okay, got it." He hung up.

Across town another explosion tore away at the already frazzled fabric of Tokyo's sanity. And yet again a flashing red indicator of trouble appeared on the screen in the CIC. It was a warehouse in Kawasaki, and Genom owned to boot.
"Ignore it. Let Metro handle it." Tasha ordered. She was in no mood to go around half cocked chasing any more bullshit explosions.
She'd been watching some of the news channels in the brief interludes between detonations. The Eastern news, well, to be more specific, Japanese, were giving play to Genom, which was to be expected, most if not all the news channels were owned outright by them. "ADP assassins murders devoted father!" Complete with footage of Mr. Yamamoto's 'remains' being pulled from the car and placed on a stretcher. She scowled, that was about the twentieth time she'd seen that piece aired, and she hadn't even been glued to the TV, God knows how many times they'd shown it. "Another explosion in Tokyo, no warning from the ADP!" This being aired with footage of the aftermath of the two previous blasts, with new shots of the warehouse explosion just now coming in. All this and other such headlines flittered across the screen. She scoffed. However, the western news agencies were singing a wholly different tune. The analysts were as confused as she was about the seemingly random explosions, as well as the fact that aside from the first few hours or so after the bridge had been turned into rubble that the Japanese news was hardly if at all covering it.
"It's like the one hand doesn't even know where the other is. I mean look at it. Genom's bridge just blew up, and here is all this news coming out of their agencies talking about car bombs. I mean what's going on. It's as if they are trying to say, hey, forget about the bridge, look over here, look at this. No one's talking about how much it'll cost to fix, or how long. It doesn't make sense."
Tasha laughed at that. Sometimes FOX news could be downright funny. Fair and balanced, and funny. She couldn't blame them, especially the American news. After the Prometheus Incident there weren't to many Genom sympathizers out there that had the balls to speak up. Phoenix alone, not to mention the loss of Guam made Waco, Oklahoma City, the Khobar Towers, 9/11, Cedar Falls, and the Brighton massacres combined, pale in comparison. The US was out for blood, and they blamed Genom.
The US State Department, the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security had cited imminent domain and had taken, by force of US Marines, Genom's towers in New York and Los Angeles. They'd waited a few days after the attack, to try a pass at diplomacy, but when Genom, or rather Japan on their behalf, tried to muddle the debate in the UN as to the issue of culpability the US had flipped out, and as much as the New York cops would've loved to let the crowd have their way, they had had to employ each and every crowd control trick in the book to ensure that the Japanese Ambassador to the UN made it safely to the airport. Guatemala, having suffered cataclysmic damage to their capital city, despite the fact that the beam had been somewhat deflected by the mountains to the southeast had expelled the Japanese Ambassador from their country and in a scathing speech, formally broke off all diplomatic ties and had all but declared war. Shortly thereafter the British Parliament had followed suit by occupying Genom Tower London. Russia, or rather the New Soviet Union, had seized Genom tower Moscow and China, not having any Genom businesses in country had responded to their supply ship that had been vaporized en-route to Antarctica by demanding restitution. Strangely enough Genom had paid that rather fast, she guessed that even Genom Inc. was wary of a billion screaming Chinese. She also figured that the Japanese Diet was behind that payoff, America was across the Pacific; China was in their backyard.
Her secure phone ringing wrenched her from her musings and she noticed the caller ID was from the High Caliber. That woke her up.
"Go ahead Bobo."
"Ma'am. Glad I caught you. We just got a call from Tony's, our, Shinkawa property. A van rolled up a few minutes ago and pumped a few rockets into it. There's a fire but no one was killed."
"Injuries?"
"I don't know."
"Okay, I'll get the Fire Department out there. Call Tony and see if he wants anything else done." That'll make him smile she thought; he'd been planning to demolish the property pending remodeling anyway. Now we get the insurance money and demo done for free. Thanks Genom.
"Yes ma'am. Sure is turning out to be one of those days isn't it?"
"Tell me about it. How are Linna and the kids?"
"They're fine, glued to the TV, but fine."
"Keep 'em safe for me willya."
"I will."
She heard the truth in his statement, and knew that any one foolish enough to try and hurt them would have to contend with a 220-pound man with an attitude and fists full of armament. He was not only their head bouncer and the head of security at the HiC; he was part of the family.
While Bobo made his call Tasha called Col. Davidson again to let him know about Tony's planned rendezvous with the convoy. She didn't want any miscommunication and least of all a blue on blue engagement.
She was happy for the all but five-minute respite earlier as information was now pouring in. The Press conference had started, and on the heels of that the ATC tapes that had been gathered up by Genom were being aired. She was proven right. It showed a Firebee breaking it's patrol route and fly over to the area in question, it did a lazy circle, than made an 'attack run', the speed and altitude indicators next to the offending blip told as much. Picture perfect too, right out of the textbooks. Thankfully Nene and her team of analysts had digested the information from the tapes from Iruma and Yakota. A statement had been written up for the poor soul stuck with Press Corps duty at the moment and that statement, the tapes as well as the corresponding liaison officers, JASDF from Iruma, USAF from Yakota, were escorted down to the briefing room. She watched the news channels as they all went to a special report, and all showed the same thing, albeit from different angles. An operator walked over to the briefer and slid her the statement and whispered into her ear for a few seconds. She looked from the paper to the liaison officers and back again a few times and nodded, info dump assimilated.
In turn the officers loaded the tapes and the lights were lowered and they were shown. The tapes were identical to the footage aired by Genom, aside from one crucial thing. The errant Firebee was there, but so were all the ADP Firebee's, right where they should be. The other tapes had one of the ADP blips doctored out. So here it was for the world to see, all the ADP choppers, plus one. The JASDF and USAF officers made statements to the effect that from the moment the ADP came to request the footage that none of the tapes had left their sight and that no altering of the tapes had taken place.
As this was playing out her officers at Narita International and Shingawa AB had acquired the gate tapes of the bogus ADP officers and had transmitted them to Human Resources at her request. HR than confirmed that none of the folks in the ADP cruisers belonged to the ADP, either in Tokyo or for any other city in Japan. A copy of the HR records, pictures and basic information only, was compiled and attached to the taped footage. Than after the Chief cleared it, this latest batch of information was run down to the briefing room and transmitted to any news agency that wanted it.
Tasha smiled at her handiwork. This information war had hit high gear and so far she had the high ground. The tapes released by Genom controlled sources had just put the footage up as if it were gospel, no liaison officers, no statement of authenticity, just a talking head saying this is what happened. And moreover their military analysts, some she had to admit, were pretty darned good; when the story didn't involve Genom, were conspicuously absent. She also noticed that the doctored footage always seemed to cut off after the Firebee made it's attack run, not showing, like the tapes the ADP had, that after the attack run the helicopter had turned south, increasing speed and decreasing altitude until it dropped off the radar. Not, she noted heading northwest towards the ADP building. Movement in a flat panel to her left caught her attention and she saw Tony's Cien followed by two Army jeeps and a deuce-and-a-half pull into the motor pool. She could also hear the dull thwupa-thwupa of a Blackhawk over head.
The news camera's outside the building showed the same and she imagined that across the bay in Genom tower some brows were beginning to sweat, just wondering what the hell that all meant. Well let 'em sweat the dumb bastards. Genom might be the most powerful corporation the world has even, and may ever see, but with that came their unmitigated arrogance, that and the false belief that anything they say would be taken as fact. Maybe four months ago, before Prometheus, but not now.
The satellite feed was quick enough to digest; she'd used this format before and knew what she was doing. The Army liaison officer stood next to her, watching over her shoulder, making sure she didn't try to add anything, or worse yet, remove anything. She assuaged him by talking him thru what she was doing, even the silly stuff, like saving or zooming in and out. He smiled when she'd finished, she'd made his job easier than he'd anticipated. He'd seen her a few times on base, and in the CP, and was surprised at the realization that maybe her reputation of being a trustworthy and forthright individual had been true, this considering the fact that most of the guys on base talked more about her tits and ass then they did her honesty.
She released the information after making a copy, with the liaison officer's permission of course. When she returned to the CIC proper a nearby video monitor showed him with an armed escort enter the briefing area and she sat back satisfied as the footage was aired, pointing out in Technicolor rather than raster graphics that there were indeed two "Tango Fourteen's' in the air at the same time. The numbering of the false chopper clearly visible as it banked south. This was compounded by the footage from the helipad shot some hour's earlier showing Tango Fourteen clearly in the pattern waiting his turn to land. Besides which, Tango Ten, his wingman had reported that he never left his side. What irked her was that all the Japanese news stations immediately switched to their newest story. Brian J. Mason was on TV. She sat forward in her chair, eagerly anticipating his statement.
"I come before you today to tell you that regardless of what the ADP is putting out, that we know that they are responsible for Mr. Yamamoto's murder. He is, was, a close personal..." He choked up a bit and Tasha marveled that he'd managed to produce tears. "...a close personal friend. He will be missed. He is survived by his wife, and his young son." He made a gesture to his right and a grieving woman in black was sobbing next to him, a young child clutching her hand. She noted that the child didn't look all too sad; in fact he looked bored.
"We at Genom Incorporated are shocked and dismayed that the ADP, which we all know is owned and operated by Genom, would resort to such flagrant attacks and misuse of authority. It may well be that like the dinosaur, that the ADP has become a relic, desperately trying to avoid extinction." He looked to "Mr. Yamamoto's" wife and choked out another sob, and ushered her inside, a sympathetic arm over her shoulder. She flipped thru the other channels and saw the same thing, with weepy-eyed talking heads showing their outrage and sympathy. She also noticed that the footage she'd sent out from Human Resources was nowhere to be seen.

A few minutes later Tony and Karl left the building, Tony on the ground and Karl by air. They each had a copy of the HR data, and were en-route to hand deliver it to the Channel 9 News. Tasha had called earlier, but her conversation had been cut off by static, jamming more likely. Tony had turned the corner and saw the building ahead of him with people milling about outside when there was a bright flash followed by an impossibly loud BOOM. As his vision cleared he saw bedlam before him, charred cars and corpses littered the street. Above him Karl had to fight to keep his aircraft from being tossed into the building by the shockwave and rush of heat.
Picking his way thru the carnage Tony rolled up as close as he could to the front entrance. As he stepped out of his car an edgy security guard approached him.
"Sir, you can't be here. You have to leave."
"I'm with the ADP." He replied, showing his badge. "I've got something for the news room."
"What is it?"
"This." As he pulled out the package from his jacket the guard freaked and put his gun up and within inches of his face.
"Son, you don't want to do this. All I'm here for is a delivery, now let me inside."
"Hell no! I'm not letting you in."
Above them they heard a sound of ripping linoleum, which Tony recognized as a gatling gun firing. Karl! The guard looked up and Tony took the opportunity and with a swift flash of movement had disarmed him and was now holding the petulant guard at gunpoint with his own weapon. He pulled his phone out.
"Karl! What the hell's going on up there?"
"Shit. They just opened fire on me, I'm trying to keep their heads down."
"Christ." He muttered and noticed that his disarmament of the guard had not gone unnoticed and some ten other security personnel were pouring out of the entrance their guns drawn, and their safeties off no doubt.
"Tasha. We have a problem."
She listened to him explain what was going on and Karl added in his experiences.
"Okay, Tony, hold position, Karl cease fire and get under defilade. Give me a minute."
She dialed Channel 9's security office, the direct line. A few rings later a Mr. Kurosawa answered in a tizzy.
"Security, Kurosawa here."
"Hello, Mr. Kurosawa, this is Natasha Romanov ADP, I've got two officers being assaulted by your men as we speak."
"Th-they tried to gain access to the building, this after we just had a bomb go off."
"Be that as it may, you will immediately stand down and allow them entry."
"But one has a Firebee! That's ludicrous."
"You will let him land as he is now bingo fuel thanks to your men. You will also give them all the cooperation they want, or else I will consider it interfering with police business. Should that happen I promise you I will be deploying an armored detachment to your location with all the frills that come with it. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
There was a low grumble from him.
"Perfectly, ma'am." The last part was uttered as a curse.
She hung up with him and reconnected with Tony. He informed her that the guards had put their popguns away and were leading him inside. Karl likewise reported compliance. The news was shown a little while later, but with the little addition stating that the ADP had twisted their arm to play it. Tough, you mendacious bastards, she swore to herself. She got up and stretched and made her way down to the press conference; which at this point was beginning to let out. A few people recognized her and sat back down, the Ice Queen was about to speak; now here was a scoop. Some others had already left, but a good 60% were still there.
"Are you going to make a statement?" One of the reporters asked.
"Yes Hiro, I am." She smiled, she'd made it point to memorize the names of all the pool reporters, it showed class, and unnerved them a bit, after all she knew their name, what else might she know.
"As we've been showing you, the ADP is in no way responsible for the tragic death of Mr. Yamamoto. And while I grieve for his family I am confident in my knowledge that no ADP officer was responsible for their pain."
The Q & A session went back and forth for a good fifteen minutes until a spry reporter by the name of Yuki Akera asked her to comment on Mr. Mason's statements. She smiled, hoping it would come up.
"Well Yuki, either Mr. Mason is working with some extremely flawed information, or, or he's a bold faced liar."
The conference room went dead silent. She'd quite literally stunned them stupid. She smiled again and nodded.
"I think that does it for tonight. No further questions." She waved friendlily as she made her way out. No sooner had she stepped out the door than her pager went off. She looked at it; another bomb had gone off, this time in front of the Channel 6 building. She sighed, such a waste of life, she hadn't even sent Tony and Karl there, and here was this explosion to scare them into lockdown too.
When she returned to the CIC her phone was ringing in her office. She answered and was greeted by the urbane yet synthetic voice of a boomer female.
"Ms. Romanov."
"Director Romanov, yes."
"Director Romanov, I am calling from Mr. Mason's office."
"Really, well put him through." She smiled.
"Um...well, he's not here, but he did want me to confirm you calling him a, what was it, a 'bold faced liar.'"
"Well, if you'll take another listen to my statement you'll hear that I said that 'Either Mr. Mason is working with some extremely flawed information, or he's a bold faced liar.' Now stop sensationalizing." She hung up. What a gutless prick, you could practically hear him breathing on the other end.
When Tony and Karl entered her office she was finishing things up and the news was playing her sound bite along with her response to Mason's burning question.
"Get a lil steamed did we?" Karl admonished playfully.
"I just called a spade a spade." She huffed.
"Not the best idea in the world." Tony chimed in.
Tasha shrugged.
"Maybe, but what's done is done. And yes to assuage your burning fears, I probably could have put that better."
"Would you have?" Karl asked.
She paused at that, than looked at him.
"No."
"Fair enough." He smiled back.

Linna was asleep when they got back to the HiC around eight that night; her head slumped with a trickle of saliva running down her cheek. Her pistol was in one hand and the covers in her other. She was still wearing the armored vest Tasha had given her seventeen hours ago. As Tony and Karl made something to drink Tasha slid the gun from her hand, checked the safety and set it next to her on the couch, than brought the cover over her and tucked her in. She looked out the window at the night sky; the stars obscured by smoke and laughed softly, the only daylight she'd seen that day had been either thru a security monitor or on the TV. They talked about what had happened during the day, that and the fact that the ADP was most likely going to have the plug pulled sooner not later. Tony had surprised them by offering a solution. Strike. Go on strike, pull the ADP off the streets and you prove Genom wrong, not only that, you take away Genom's victim status and make the ADP the aggrieved party. It was blatant, and it was genius. While Karl called the chief and outlined the plan Tasha wrote up the proposal and sent it to all the effected parties. Metro, Fire, Genom, the School boards, the Diet, every and anybody that would need to be on extra alert for boomer issues now that the ADP was taking a 'vacation'. Of course certain officers, Det. 3 specifically, and some support staff, would still be on shift, to keep the lights on, after all, a total strike would be insane, but what would work was a 'work slow down'.
The Chief approved it, he saw the writing on the wall, and there was no other way that he could see to save the ADP, none whatsoever. After that the Union representatives had called back saying that they would proceed but that a meeting would be needed to inform all the members. Tasha laughed after she set the meeting for that night, one hour later. She wasn't even in the union, and here she was lobbying for a strike.
The meeting went extremely well, the union guys were happy, the officers were happy, they all understood that through no fault of their own they were being given the short end of the stick. An overwhelming 96% majority voted the work slow down to go into effect at 0800 hours tomorrow morning.

* * *

Tasha sighed as they got off the elevator, all three of them feeling as if they'd gone ten rounds with Iron Mike Tyson. After sixteen hours on the job followed by another three of union business neither felt like they could stand let alone walk the rest of the way to their rooms, but with dignity, and a whole lot of fatigue they did. Tony and Karl went to their rooms and Tasha meandered to the office. She noted that Linna was sitting; reading a magazine in the chair across from the fold out couch, and than she proceeded to flop unceremoniously face first onto it. Linna was out of the chair before she'd bounced and stood by the bed, her hands covering her mouth. She'd never seen Tasha do that before, and looked about the room. Satisfied that there were no bullet holes in the window or walls she crawled up onto the bed and walking on her knees sat on her haunches next to her and nudged her gently. With a stifled whimper Tasha pushed herself onto her elbows and looked up at her.
"Do I have to get up already?" She whined.
Linna almost cried, trying to hide a tearful smile.
"Oh shit, I'm sorry. I thought you were hurt." She tried to explain.
Tasha smiled weakly at her and flopped back onto the bed and curled up into a ball, clutching the pillow with one hand and her hand in the other. Linna sat motionless, afraid that any movement might wake her. Gingerly, almost in slow motion she reached down and brushed her hair from her cheek. She looked so peaceful, and so tired. With her free hand she undid her holsters and as gently as she could, slid them off, hanging them nearby, well within arms reach. Her boots followed and her armored jacket. Than pulling the covers over them both, Linna settled in behind her, and wrapping her arms around her friend, kissed her on the nape of her neck, than joined her in sleep.
The next morning, at around five, Tasha's internal clock woke her. She noticed Linna's embrace and with a tired smile tried to squirm out of it. Her stirring woke her and she pushed up on her elbows, than craning her neck looked at the clock on the wall, the red glowing digital display showing 5:05 in the AM.
"Shit Tasha, it's five in the morning, go back to sleep." She yawned.
"I can't I have to go to work."
Linna weighed her options. Tasha had a point. But she knew she'd gone in at four yesterday morning, and hadn't gotten back until eleven that night. Although at some point between that she'd returned for a short while due to the reassuring love letter she'd found on her lap sometime after seven. Either way, she'd been up and at it for upwards of twenty hours. She'd seen the news, it had been a whirlwind day, and she knew that Tasha'd most likely had no time what so ever to rest. So, taking charge, and the initiative, she wrapped her arms tighter around her and using her body as a weight, settled her back into bed.
"L...Linna?"
"Go back to sleep. That's an order missy."
Tasha, propped up on one elbow laid there in subdued shock. Linna had a good grip, and now had just draped her leg over her.
"Aw fuck it." She muttered and let her arm collapse from under her, flopping back onto the mattress. She was too tired to fight it, besides she didn't really care, not anymore. She'd go in, later.
Linna smiled to herself as she felt Tasha relent and kissed her lovingly on the neck again.

It was five hours later when Tasha woke again, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Linna was still wrapped around her and woke with her movement. 'I thought Nene said she was a heavy sleeper?' She mused to herself. But than again she most likely hadn't wrapped herself around her that night she'd stayed over at her place.
"Morning sweetheart. Sleep well?" Linna asked.
"Yeah." Tasha smiled. "Thanks."
"You want me to get breakfast?"
"Nah, not just yet. I need a shower."
"You sure do."
"Oh ha ha." Tasha scoffed tussling her hair.
Linna giggled, smiling as she sat Indian-style on the bed as Tasha swung her legs over the side. "Well go then, I'll have something sent up kay."
"Okay." Tasha whispered and smiled.

As they ate breakfast Tasha gazed longingly out the window at the city beyond and sighed. Linna had informed her after she'd gotten out of the shower, as she was putting her uniform on that it was Saturday, and that she was going to spend the day with her. It hadn't been a request.
"What's wrong babe?" Linna asked.
Turning back with a sheepish smile Tasha poked at her food.
"It's nothing." She smiled.
"Bull shit." Linna smiled back. She put her hand on hers and squeezed gently.
"Tell me. Please."
"I wanna go outside is all." Tasha sighed indignantly. "Being cooped up in here like this is starting to grate. And what's worse, is that because of me, you are too."
Linna lowered her head and nodded. If truth-be-told, she was feeling a bit of the 'Cabin Fever' as well.
"Yeah, I know, but it can't be helped now can it."
"I know." Tasha shrugged. She'd thought about saying something else, but knew that if she brought, or even tried to bring up their relationship and the guilt she felt at putting her into these positions she knew that Linna would most likely slap her just to shut her up. They'd crossed this bridge before, there was no use crossing it again.
"Look on the bright side though." Linna offered. "We've been getting to spend a lot of time together."
"Yeah." Tasha laughed softly. "That's true."
"Besides, I know you're doing everything you can. Anyway, I'm sure once that work is done on my place I'll be out of your hair."
"You're not 'in my hair', you know that." Tasha scowled at the accusation.
"I know, I'm sorry, bad figure of speech." She apologized, feeling loved.
Tasha sighed and ran her fingers thru her hair uneasily.
"I know, I know. I'm, I'm just stressed out is all. I didn't mean to snap at you."
Linna laughed.
"Jeez, you call that snapping? Trying to treat me with kid gloves are you? I mean it's not like you called me a dumb bitch or anything."
Tasha blushed and smiled. Further comment on the matter was unnecessary, and they both knew it.
"So what's on the docket for today?" Linna asked, changing the subject.
"More of the same, keeping our heads down. I've got a heap of paperwork to take care of, stuff like that, but for the most part I'm free. I guess it was a good idea to put a gun range in here huh. At least we can do that."
Linna pursed her lips in thought and nodded.
"Yup, renting movies or listening to Tony sing would get boring fast neh?"
Tasha laughed, no matter the situation Linna could always make her laugh, or feel at ease, usually both.
The weekend went without incident, thankfully. All the paper work was done, and they'd expended enough rounds to fill a five-gallon bucket. Linna was getting better that was to be sure, consistent and deadly accurate. She just hoped that if she ever had to do it for real that she'd keep her proficiency under fire. They'd just finished the last few, loose, rounds and had gone upstairs to wash the smell of gun oil and cordite off of them when Bobo called up and notified them that they had visitors.
Tony and Karl were there, milling about, when the call came and as one all three went into paranoia mode.
"Who are they?" Tony asked as Tasha brought up the camera feeds for the foyer.
"They say CIA." Bobo replied nonplussed.
Tasha picked up the phone and dialed and a few seconds later a female voice answered.
"Central Intelligence offices Langley."
"Hi there, my name is Natasha Romanov, and I've got..." She looked at the screen. "Three of your agents outside of my front door. I was calling to confirm that they are indeed your men."
"I see, what was your name again?"
"Natasha Romanov, I'm at the High Caliber in Tokyo."
There was a pause.
"Hold please. I'm transferring you now."
There was a brief interlude of muzak before the other end picked up.
"Director Briggs."
"Hello Sir." Tasha said. "I've got three agents out front and I was looking for proof that you really did send them."
"They're there already? That was fast." He laughed good-naturedly. "Yup we sent them."
"Do you mind describing them to me sir."
"Not at all. There is Mr. Barkley; he'll be holding a briefcase. Then Agents Jones and Smith. Smith'll be in a dark gray suit and Jones in black. Jones is blonde and Smith with black hair."
"Any other features that I might be able to check on?"
"Well, Smith has a tattoo on his right rear cheek. But I'm not so sure he'll want to show it off."
"I see." Tasha laughed.
"A bit paranoid are we. Ms. Romanov?"
"Well sir, given current events you can hardly blame me."
"No, I suppose not. I hope I answered your questions and here, let me give you me direct line if you need anything else."
"Thank you sir, I appreciate it."
She took his number, memorizing it, and thanked him again than hung up.
"They're clean, send them up." She said to the room.
Tony nodded and instructed Bobo to allow them access, after abiding to a rather draconian security check first. So they waited as four security personnel escorted them in, than posted guard, two inside, two out.
They exchanged formalities, Tasha even asked about the tattoo on Agent Smith's ass.
"Called in to check on us eh?"
"Sure did." She smiled. "So what can we do for you gentlemen today?"
"Well ma'am. What we're really here is for a no-bullshit assessment. We'd like to know, ahem..." He cleared his throat. "What the hell is going on out here?"
"Easy question, hard answer." Karl muttered.
Tasha nodded at that, truer words had never been spoken.
"Can you be more specific?" She asked.

The conversation went on for fifteen minutes, with each of them recanting their views, comments, observations, and in some cases worries to the three boys from Langley. As they painted the picture for them their mood grew dour. Finally Tasha asked.
"So, exactly whom are you gathering this info for?"
"Whomever needs it really. The Joint Chiefs want to know what's going on, so does State. Even the President wants answers."
"Yeesh! That bad huh?"
"Pretty bad, after Prometheus and your subsequent testimony, well, let's just say that confidence in the Japanese government is at an all time low."
There was an awkward silence before Mr. Barkley spoke up.
"You mentioned that you'd put the ADP on strike."
"Yes."
"Care to tell us why, exactly."
"Good question, well..." Tasha exhaled noisily; the reasons had been tough to swallow.
"After Mr. Mason's statement, about our ineffectiveness, we felt that the only way to avoid an ADP closure was to, prove him wrong, and sadly the only way we could think of to do that was to pull our officers off the street. It's putting people at risk I know, but it will get the message across."
The agents nodded; there was no denying the logic, the cold, hard, and almost ruthless logic. Pull the officers off the street, and when the bodies started to pile up, everyone would know that Mr. Mason was wrong, dead wrong. Agent Jones cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. He fixed everyone a cold gaze.
"What I'm about to tell you does not leave this room."
Tasha rose her hand, and looked at Tony, than to the two guards still inside. Linna, having heard voices had elected not to reenter the living area. There was a silent exchange as they digested her intentions and Tony finally nodded.
"Boys, could you please step into the office for a moment."
They nodded and complied, and when the door shut behind them Agent Jones continued.
"This strike. We'd like it if it continued for at least a week."
That got a few bewildered looks from the three and they looked at each other.
"Could you tell us why?" Tasha asked.
"This information, what we have and what you've provided us, is indeed slated for high places. And to be honest from what we've heard we're pretty much confirming everyone's worst fears. The Administration is preparing to go to the UN at weeks end to propose that the UN create an agency equal to the ADP in scope and jurisdiction, global jurisdiction actually. And the first step will be to send in the UN to in effect take over the ADP, to keep the peace here, and try and stabilize things."
Tasha sat back, winded at this revelation. Tony and Karl were likewise shocked. However a slight smile crept across Tony's face. Tasha's stunned look faded quickly and a scowl took its place. Mr. Barkley noted this and eyed her.
"Something on your mind?"
"This sounds all fine and dandy, but what about controls, and red tape. We all know how UNSCOM and UNMOVIC ended up. Hell even UNICEF, I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that the UN could, sorry, would, do a good job at this. Given their past record."
"You have a point, but that was then, this is now. After the 2020's the UN learned."
"I know the history, and the track record Mr. Barkley. But what's to stop Genom, or any other influential institution from exercising their powers and turning this into a colossal failure?"
"Well, this would be a US led initiative."
"Fine and well, but the original question stands."
He eyed her cautiously and turned to meet the gaze of his comrades. Smith shrugged slightly and Jones smiled. He'd read her file, they all had, and she was as on top of it as it had led them to believe. He nodded. Mr. Barkley turned back to her, Tony and Karl.
"Certain personnel would be needed to retain their position if this is to transition smoothly. You, by which I mean the ADP, have a lot more, how shall I put it, time in service, time in grade in this matter, and the powers that be do not want that talent wasted, in fact they believe that to do so would doom this measure to failure before it could even be voted upon."
"Good call." Tony deadpanned.
"Yes, well, that being said, I'm sure it's safe to say that your continued presence in the positions you're in would be a given."
"No special treatment Mr. Barkley."
"Say again?"
"No special treatment, I'm sure that you're going over the personnel records of the ADP with a fine tooth comb, I don't feel we should be given any special consideration."
"And why the hell not?" Tony blurted. "Christ Tasha, we've been sticking our ass on the line since day one."
"I know, but consider this, how much credibility do you think this would all get if it were to get out that our positions where pencil whipped?"
He paused, and pursed his lips, she had a point, but he was truly worried that they may dredge up something that he, as well as Karl might not want dredged up, hell, even she was in neck deep. Mr. Barkley put his hands up in mock surrender.
"Let me assure you that your records etc. won't be pencil whipped."
Tasha nodded at that.
"Well, that being the case, and given the fact that you're perusing the records, I'd keep an eye on the Ops Director, that guys a Genom fun boy." Tasha added.
That got their attention. Mr. Barkley blinked.
"Do you have proof?"
"Gimme a second." Tasha replied and pushed herself out of her seat and made her way to the office.
Linna looked up as she entered. The other guards were hanging out, bored and stood as she entered.
"At ease, as you where." She joked. It wasn't the military here, but when you employed ex-soldiers old habits tend to die-hard. She made her way to her desk and retrieved her PDA.
"Everything okay out there?" Linna asked and the two guards keyed in, most likely asking the same question themselves, but not wanting to say it out loud.
"Yeah, everything's okay." She smiled. Linna and the guards relaxed somewhat as she left.
"Here." She said as she handed a disk to Agent Jones.
"That was fast." He remarked.
"What can we say, we're efficient." Tony smiled.
"Those are his personnel records, and the transcripts and recordings of a few conversations we've tapped." She added.
"Who else know about this?" he asked.
"The Chief, and Commander Sparks. We've been playing him for information, as well as feeding him bad juju for Genom. But, given what the UN is planning to do we might as well dispose of him, he's outlasted his usefulness."
The agents blinked. Goddamn! She took note.
"Wording to harsh? I wasn't suggesting we kill him or anything, Jeez, I don't want you to think I'm a murderer or anything." She smiled disarmingly, which unfortunately didn't help to ease the situation any.
"Ehem. I see. Yes." Agent Smith coughed.
"Either way, he's got to go." Tony chimed in and Karl nodded his agreement.
The conversation ended shortly after that, the boys from Langley had everything they needed, for now, and the longer they stayed, to more likely their presence would go noticed. Before they left however, Tasha was informed that she was wanted in New York on Monday, the Secretary of State was going to address the UN and she'd been requested to be there as a material witness. She nodded, she was really wracking up the frequent flyer mileage; this would be her second trip to New York this month.

"So how'd it go?" Linna asked when she came back out into the living area. She'd seen the CIA car leave and the guards had left a little earlier when Karl and Tony had retreated downstairs to the bar for a drink.
"Pretty well."
"I know that tone of voice. You ain't telling me shit are you?"
Tasha blushed.
"You know, I wish they'd give you a security clearance equal to mine, that way I'd be able to tell you everything."
Linna sat on the arm of the couch and blinked.
"What and ruin what you love about me? No way."
Tasha wagged a playful finger at her as she cleaned the table.
"Well put my dear. Anyway, I'll say this, it's better than 'pretty well', and right now things are looking a lot better. So how are those stocks doing?" She finished, changing the subject.
"Not bad, Microsoft is up a percent and holding steady, and Procter & Gamble coasted a bit before it popped up a tick."
"Excellent." Tasha beamed.
"You do know that I'm not a licensed broker?"
"Well, duh! But we can fix that."
"How?"
Tasha walked up to her and kissed her.
"It's easy sweetheart, you study, and take a test, and then you become a licensed broker."
Linna blushed with a libidinous smile.
"Yeah yeah, enough about the homework, I wanna get back to that kiss."

* * *

She boarded the plane, Linna had seen her off, much to her chagrin, she didn't want her hurt on the way back, but Linna was a feisty independent young woman, and she knew that were the roles reversed she'd be right there at the airport for her. Linna waited until the plane pulled away from the terminal and stayed until she saw it take off and disappear into the low overcast that hung over the city like in a gray pallor. A thick column of grayish blue smoke connected it to the wreckage of the bridge, the structural fires out, but still smoldering in places. Linna thought that it looked like the clouds had all come from the bridge, but knew it was just an optical illusion, still, it was none-the-less foreboding and creepy.
At the HiC, Karl and Tony along with a few select guards were in the parking garage, now eerily devoid of patrons, and their vehicles. Since they where still a target, the HiC had remained closed over the weekend in anticipation of an attack. But none had come, which only made the waiting worse. But things had to be done, chores accomplished and pick ups to be made. Tony outlined what today's adventure would be. A shipment of exotic and classic cars had arrived from the States for High Caliber Auto, the newest addition to High Caliber Industries: LLC's holdings. In actuality the facility that was now HiC Auto had been a boomer chop shop in Sotho Ward, right on the rim of the fissure that was the Pit. Det 3 had raided the place a good three months back, back during a time Tony not so fondly remembered as their 'bitch' phase. He never liked going after the common hood, he much preferred to be right in the face of the big boys, but it was a boomer crime, and he was in the ADP, so he'd gone along and hated it. When she'd originally purchased the property, or rather had it's paperwork 'updated' to reflect new ownership, Tasha had intended it to become a safe house of sorts. That part of the plan never materialized, seeing as everyone in the area knew the place had been busted, so, based on conversations with her compatriots in regards to ways to increase incoming cash flow and the idea of expensive cars to do that, (both Karl and Tony were auto buffs, despite her Corvette, it just wasn't something she was interested in). She'd talked to Karl about it later, and offered the notion that they use that location, it was remote, but not to remote, the locals knew to keep away, and the facility was large enough to hold at the vary least twenty cars. There was one caveat, one Tasha had insisted upon. Part of the facility would go to house the helicopters they had acquired, in secret, underground.
Sure, no big deal, Karl had nodded, since he was also the resident helicopter pilot of the three, no problems there.
The group piled into Tony's HMMVW, armored, of course while he and Karl rode ahead in his Cadillac Cien, armored, of course, and armed to the teeth.
Elise at the Totem Pole; was watching over the farm while Tasha was away, walked through the CIC with a feeling of significance. Tasha had left her in charge, and while she was honored and elated, she didn't want to let her down either, especially since she wasn't the most senior watch officer here, Tasha had left her in charge because she trusted her implicitly. So far so good, she thought, and then her phone rang.
"Hey babe!" it was Tony.
"Hey yourself. What's up?"
"We're down at the docks, Pier 18 North Yokohama and I want some EOD boys to check a few things."
"The new cars huh?"
"Yup."
"Well we're still on strike remember?"
"Yeah, so call a few of the sluffers and ask if they want to make some easy money."
"Right." She laughed. "Okay, I'll do what I can."
That was good enough for Tony and he hung up after saying good-bye.
However even he was a little surprised when about ten guys showed up. Well he mused, she knows I need this done fast, but now I've gotta pay all these guys. The four new cars were checked in record time while he briefed the drivers.
"Now listen up gentlemen, these are performance cars, big medicine under the hood you follow? Be careful because if you don't these cars will, and I mean will, get away from you."
There were some subdued laughs all around, but they understood; besides, anyone who so much as dinged a fender could expect to have it out of their paycheck.
It didn't take long for trouble to find them, they'd taken the freeway back, and were about half way, when a tail was spotted. It was a late model non-descript SUV. Flicking a few switches on his dash Tony adjusted his rear view camera.
"Eddie. Scan please."
He'd named his car Eddie, after the mascot for Iron Maiden, a group of extremely talented musicians who made their way up to stardom much as he was now, with no record company, and no corporate sponsorship.
"Yes Michael." His car replied, a joke from the makers at Robocar, and most likely prompted by Karl. The scan proved his suspicions correct. The occupants of the car were armed, heavily, and judging from the suspension lag, at least one aboard was a boomer.
"Ok gang. Head's up, we've got hostiles to our six. I'm gonna take a closer look. Karl, keep the convoy moving."
"Roger that." Karl replied.
Gracefully swerving into the next lane Tony hit the brakes, shot past the SUV and pulled in behind it. No sooner had he matched speed than the sunroof to the SUV popped open and a gun barrel followed be the head and shoulders of the shooter appeared. The gunner opened fire and Tony had to fight the urge to duck as the rounds ricocheted off the armored hull and glass. Reaching down to the center consol just behind the gear shifter, he popped open what appeared to be the coin tray revealing a cocking mechanism. Pulling back sharply and letting go he rammed a 20mm AP slug into the chamber of the spinal mounted Anti Tank gun. After Natasha's Uber Vette he, like Karl had decided that maybe it was time to James Bondify their rides and in addition to the armor, the avionics, and the 20mm, he had installed a pair of Bu-K9 lasers on the forward fairings on the hood and a rotary launcher for dumb-fire 2.75' rockets. Normally employed in pods holding anywhere from three to nineteen rockets, they were used by attack choppers, aerodynes, K-suits, and Battlemovers to wipe an offending area of personnel and or lightly armored vehicles. In two pods of six each, these would pop out from underneath the doors on either side of the vehicle, and like the 20mm, their only real drawback was the fact that the car had to point in the direction they were to be fired.

Depressing the firing stud on the steering wheel he was jerked forward into his restraints as the recoil slowed his forward momentum a few KPH in a fraction of a second. The SUV erupted in front of him and he had to break right to avoid the rear doors, blown off their hinges by the massive over pressure of the round as it passed thru them, the gunner manning the sunroof and into the engine block beyond, separating it from the rest of the vehicle as it was blown forward thru the grill. With no hydraulics the SUV was unable to slow or stop and hitting its own drive train nosed up and rolled onto it's side depositing the upper half of the gunner onto the highway. Pulling back into the lane he'd just left he blew past the skidding vehicle. He keyed his radio.
"Elise! We've got hostiles on the freeway, northbound lanes just past Kawasaki."
Blinking in surprise as she came to the realization that the easy day so far had just gone to pot she sprang into action.
"Roger that, I'm sending air units your way, keep me informed."
Ahead of the convoy in the lead vehicle, Tony's HMMVW, being piloted by HiC staff, another black SUV pulled in ahead and the rear doors flew open.
"Tony! We've got another SUV here!"
"On my way!"
From inside the hostile vehicle the unmistakable figure of a Bu-55C combat boomer appeared and jumped into the fray. Landing on the hood of a hapless sub-compact the force of the impact flipped it over rear first seconds after a second leap deposited the boomer onto the hood of the HMMVW.
"HOLY SHIT! A boomer just landed on the hood!" Came the Hummer driver's panicked shout as he fought to regain control. With the amount of armor the converted military vehicle carried all the boomers landing did was depress the suspension slightly.
"Karl, get everyone out of here, this is getting ugly!"
With only a double click on the com channel to signify receipt of the message Karl and the other three convoy vehicles took the nearest off ramp than splitting off from one another headed home towards the safety of the HiC by random and separate routes.

As Tony raced up the field three additional Firebee's entered the area to assist the lone mini chopper that had been flying over-watch since the onset. The lead pilot locked onto the boomer but couldn't get a clean shot, not without hitting the HMMVW. As he tried to get a good angle his radar notified him of two more fast movers that had just appeared. His IFF classified them as more Bu-55C's.
On the Hummer the boomer slammed his fist into the hood apparently trying to smash the engine block but the added layers of armor prevented him from penetrating far enough, so instead of withdrawing his hand the driver watched in horror as tendrils shot from the forearm and started to fuse with the hood.
"Oh Christ! It's trying to fuse with the car!"
"Hit the EMP!" Tony barked as he weaved thru two commuters and pulled alongside the Hummer. In his Cien the only tell tale that the EMP had been activated was an immediate black out of all of his systems followed by an immediate reboot as the onboard surge protectors restored systems functions. Outside a series of purplish blue lighting bolts cascaded across the boomer and it's burning red eyes turned dark and nearby every civilian vehicle in a fifty foot radius lost power and fell behind, their occupants bewildered as to why their cars had suddenly turned off.

In New York, Tasha sat next to the assistant to the Secretary of Defense as the SECDEF began his speech to the gathered UN Security Council. She looked about the room, it was not her first time in this forum, but this was the most packed she'd seen it, as, it seemed, every nation had sent their representative to be here for what was rumored to be a bombshell declaration from the US of A. As the SECDEF proceeded on to the points about the Prometheus Incident her secure phone vibrated in its belt holder. As unobtrusively as she could, mainly because just like in a movie theater, cell phones and pagers were considered rude and distracting she placed it on the table in front of her and slid a stylishly small earpiece/mouthpiece over the back of her ear, adjusted it, hit record and answered the call.
"What is it Elise?" She whispered.
"Oh jeez! I'm glad I caught you! There's a firefight on the bay shore freeway, Tony's out there right now!"
If anyone was looking at her, as the assistant to the SECDEF was, slightly miffed that she'd answered a phone during a speech, and from her house as well, they noticed that her expression hardened and could see the wheels spin up the a million RPM instantly. This fact and the image of an intense young woman in uniform on the little LCD screen on her phone, apparently disseminating some pretty heavy news kept the SECDEF's aide from nudging her to close it up.
"Give me a visual." Tasha whispered.
She watched as the image from one of the Firebee's gun cameras popped onto the screen and saw what amounted to a spectacular firefight in progress. A Bu-55C had just appeared from over the city side guardrail and had fired its mouth laser at Tony's Cien missing cleanly throwing a chunk of asphalt in all directions. The voice of the pilot's, whose eyes she was watching, cried out caused her to jerk and blink as she could see that a Bu-55C had just jumped onto the chopper, she saw it's arm wind up for a punch, than nothing. The camera angle switched to the next Firebee in the line and she could see the stricken craft, the boomer jumping away, spiral into the bay trailing blood and gore from what had been the pilot's head before it slammed into the water. No sooner had she taken that in than a few streaks of light played across the sky in front of the other Firebee, and she could see that the pilot was jinking and dodging just before his feed cut out. She looked over the aide and met his eyes; the look on her face told him that something bad, really bad, was happening. Splitting the screen in two she rewound the footage to a portion that showed the Bu-55C that was accosting Tony's Cien as it skimmed along doing a hundred firing it mouth laser on the fly.
"What does that look like to you?"
"It looks like a combat boomer."
She nodded.
"This is a live feed from one of my choppers on a Tokyo highway. I'd like to put these images on the screen up there." She motioned with her head to the display screen behind the SECDEF; which was now showing still photographs from the Prometheus Incident. He nodded and both of them slid quietly out of their seats and walked over the Audio Visual crew in a side room off to the right of the Council Chamber. As she handed the phone over to the tech crew the aide, as unobtrusively as he could, made his way around the horseshoe shaped table and up to his boss. If it wasn't obvious, it was now as the SECDEF leaned over as his aide updated him as to what was happening a continent and an ocean away.

"Mother Fucker!" Tony hissed as the boomer clung to the side of his car.
"Eddie! Hit it!"
As he struggled to maintain control, a half-ton of boomer latched to the side of your vehicle tends to make it hard to maneuver, and he watched as the two Bu-K9 lasers deployed and swiveled to face his armor-plated adversary. One shot was a clean miss, but the other cleaved off the arm just as it punched at the windscreen cutting the attack off. With one hand on the wheel he raised his .80 cal handgun and had Eddie lower the window then fired point black twice into the torso.
"Get the Fuck." BLAM! "Off my car!" BLAM!

At work Linna's Navi rang and she recognized Nene's voice.
"Hey Nene. What's going on?"
"Boomer incident on the highway. Priss is on her way but I can't get out."
Linna looked around.
"I can't either, if I try to 'go home early' any more this week they'll can me."
"Shit!" Came Nene's reply.
"Hold on a second." Linna said than set the phone down. "What's going on?" She asked Nisei as she took note of a bunch off coworkers heading towards the break room.
"I dunno? Something big on C-SPAN."
Linna grabbed up her phone and followed her friend to the break room and maneuvered her way to the front so she could see.
"Oh shit!" She stammered as she saw Natasha standing next to an officious looking older gentleman who was identified and the US Secretary of Defense by the little caption on the lower right hand part of the screen. The logo of the United Nations was clearly visible and a display behind them was showing a running battle that must be what Nene was on about.
"Shit Nene!" She whispered, bringing the phone back to her ear. "It's on TV."
"Yeah, we're getting it here too. Oh fuck!" She swore as a third Firebee's signal was lost. Linna suddenly became aware that a lot of her coworkers were looking at her, they'd seen Natasha around the office, and knew that she hung out with her. On the screen the SECDEF was standing back letting the images speak for themselves as the camera switched views to show the Japanese Ambassador eight shades of red looking like he was about to explode with his aides on their phones feverishly trying to get him any information they could. The image switched back to the running battle from the vantage point of the last Firebee that had withdrawn to a safe distance and was monitoring the firefight at extreme range.

A few blocks away Nigel, Sylia and Henderson were watching the same news cast and she downed a shot of Wild Turkey as the last boomer, having narrowly dodged some sort of rocket attack, landed in front of a silver gray Cadillac Cien which rather than swerve to avoid it plowed right into it, tossing it up over the hood and over the car. It rolled a few dozen times before skidding into a guardrail, than laid there, sizzling.
"Call Priss back, it's over now." She muttered as she poured herself another drink.

After the SECDEF had concluded his presentation Tasha took the podium, and having to change the entire layout of her speech, pushed forward and delivered a brilliant and extremely powerful piece. In the Hugh Gait buildings 2nd Sales Section's break room there were a fair amount of agreeable nods as her words struck a cord with the viewers. Linna was smiling in abject pride as goose bumps of pleasure caused her to tingle. Even the Office Boomer knew it would ostracize itself more than it already had if it attempted to turn the monitor off and it stood there by the door like a silent, yet judging statue. Of course it had taken the names of every one present, and had updated their records accordingly.

After her speech the Security Council took a five-minute breather so that the delegates could mull over the images they had just seen, and for some of them, get instruction from their home ministries, Tasha had a thought. Genom would most likely try and retrieve the boomer carcasses. They would most likely follow the Japanese Ambassadors hurried assessment and claim that this was all fabricated, but with some eight combat boomers strewn from Yokahama to Tokyo proper, well, that would be hard to cover up.
Tony's phone rang.
"You all safe?" She asked.
"Yeah, you?"
"Yeah I'm fine, I'm sure the reception dinner will be interesting. Look, I need you to get yourself and Det. 3 back out there to pick up the pieces, Genom's most likely going to try and sweep the area, and we can't let this evidence disappear."
"What do I do if, sorry, when, they show up?"
"Deny them access to the area, if they persist or worse you are authorized to use what ever force up to and including lethal force to ensure mission success."
'Now you're talking', he mused; I knew I liked you.
"Roger that. I'm on it."

Down south, in a well-appointed Japanese style ranch house Mr. Yamazaki called to his wife across the room.
"Honey, come see this."
She came in, wiping her hands in a cloth, she was in the middle of the dishes when he'd called. He was pointing at the news. She recognized the setting as the UN.
"Oh look, it's Linna's friend Natasha."
Her husband nodded and took another sip of his sake. Mrs. Yamazaki sat next to him and watched. The live feed was over, but the recaps were just starting and they showed plenty.
"Oh dear!" She gasped as the footage of the downing of the Firebee's was shown again.
"My word." As the footage of the combat boomer speeding down the highway, plain as day, firing as it went, was shown.
"I hope our baby is all right." She said, looking with concern at Mr. Yamazaki.
"I knew it was a bad idea for her to go to Tokyo. If she wanted to go to the city why not Osaka."
"You know why dear."
"Yeah, those damn fool Knight Sabers of hers."
"Well, at least we know she wasn't making it up." She soothed. He sighed and nodded.
"I wish she had."
Mrs. Yamazaki nodded and patted his hand. She was scared too.

It didn't take that long for Tony to get his boys into position. He put Section 4 on the south side, with Section 3 and 5 in the middle to gather up the bits and pieces. Section 2 would man the north approach and his section, Section 1, would roam. Karl would have what was left of Section 6 flying CAP over the site. An hour or so later Genom did indeed show up, heading towards the northern cordon in a four-truck convoy led by a shiny black limo. The trucks consisted of two troop carriers and two cargo variants, most likely to carry off their 'property'. The limo stopped at the roadblock and a wraithlike executive flanked by bodyguards made their way up to the guards. He didn't even have to scan the body guards, the suspension sinking than raising back up as they exited the limousine told him they were boomers. He called his squad commanders over.
"Okay, I want the Kumo to target the one on the right, the Jagers will cover the one on the left. No one fires unless I give the signal."
"What's the signal?" Sgt. Yamaguchi asked.
Tony thought about that.
"If you see me pull the paper-pusher over the barricade, shoot."
"Roger that."
With that settled he sauntered confidently up to the barricade where the executive had just lit up a cigarette.
"Here. I'll join you." Tony said as he pulled out a Marlboro Red and lit up.
The exec wasn't amused and smiled thinly.
"So what can I do for you today?" Tony asked as nice as you please.
"We would like you to allow us access so that we may secure the area."
Tony looked behind him at the twenty odd Frontliners with their weapons at port arms, the two K-suits near him and the Kumo Battlemover of to his right. One of the BTR-80P+'s was also on station with the 30mm Auto cannon pointed downrange. Further back were the elements of Sections 3 thru 5.
"Looks pretty secure now, if you ask me."
"I didn't." The executive spat.
"Well then, I guess I'm going to have to tell you no way Jose. I've got orders not to allow any unauthorized personnel onto this highway, and you sir..." He pointed with his cigarette. "...are unauthorized."
"Well then, I think that you better get on the phone and call that gaijin bitch of yours and have her straighten you out."
"Hey now, lets all be polite now shall we."
The executive made a pantomime phone than made a shooing motion with his hand. Inside Tony ruffled. I should just blow you away right now you pompous ass. Instead he gave him a devilish smile and pointed over his shoulder.
"You know what, I think I'm going to make a phone call."
The executive smiled victoriously.
Tasha's phone rang.
"Romanov here; go."
"It's Tony, Genom's here and they want on. What's the plan? I mean how badly do we want this stuff?"
"Let's just put it this way, the US State Department wants this evidence pretty bad, it makes a lot of things pretty clear."
"Okay, I'll call you back, oh by the way, where are you?"
"Andrews AFB, I'm waiting to hop a Space A back to Osaka."
"Oh, well, enjoy the flight."
"I'll try. Be good."

He walked back to the now smug executive.
"Sorry buddy, still can't let you in, it seems that the US State Department wants the bits and pieces." That flustered the exec some but he recovered pretty fast.
"Be that as it may, I'm sure you're aware that Japan is a sovereign country, and not subject to the whims and flights of fancy of your State Department."
"You know, you may be right, but that still doesn't mean you're getting on this road."
"And I suggest you get back on that high priced phone of yours and let whoever is on the other end know that we are prepared to move forward, regardless of your presence here."
"I'll do that." He remarked with mocking cheer.
Sgt. Yamaguchi saw him motion to him as he walked around back of the BTR and hustled over.
"Sir?"
"It's gonna get deep."
"Yes sir."
"Sir?"
"Yeah?"
"We're in the right here, aren't we?"
"Hell yeah, just because Genom runs the ADP doesn't mean they can interfere with an investigation on a whim."
"Roger that sir."

"Sorry sir, the answer is still no. You do not have authorization to cross into this cordon. However once we are concluded here you are more than welcome to move your men in."
"Now see..."
He never saw it coming, the quick jab out of left field. He staggered and the next thing he knew he was sailing thru the air as Tony pulled him over the barricade. That was the cue, and as one the Kumo's 20mm cannon joined the K-11 Jagers 12.7mm's as deadly accurate fire raked the two boomer bodyguards. It was over in seconds and from behind the barricade Tony stood and dusted himself off as the exec, now shaking, rose to his feet.
"I told you sir, no unauthorized personnel may enter."
Behind the exec the troop transports emptied. The occupants had heard the fire and in a mix of defending their boss's life and not wanting to be stuck inside a stationary vehicle that might be the next target, dismounted and took up defensive positions.
No one was quite sure what started it, the most plausible explanation was that a vehicle had backfired, or a 20mm shell casing had clattered to the floor, but what happened next sealed the Genom operatives fate as one of their own, so wound up by what was going on around him, mistook a loud noise and opened fire, hitting squarely an ADP Frontliner in the face and upper chest.
The firefight was intense, brutal and over quickly. One of the Genom troop transporters tried to move to provide cover but was gutted by the 30mm from the BTR, while the rest of the Genom Security Service soldiers were killed in place by massed and precise gunfire. Another boomer, damaged, emerged from the Limo and was pummeled by small arms fire, Tony, finishing it off with a shot from his .70 caliber hand cannon just as it's mouth laser had completed it's warm up prior to firing. It slumped to the deck, finished. Tony waved his arm up and down in front of his chest calling for a cease-fire, than he and a few others crawled over the barricade to take stock of the situation. All the Genom vehicles were aflame, and there were no survivors. The Genom executive was laying on the deck a few feet from the barricade, his head split open like a ripe melon, hit by his own security men's fire as he'd tried to run back to the relative safety of his limo. Sgt. Yamaguchi hustled up to him and informed him that three ADP officers had also been killed. Thirty for three, he sighed. What a mess.
"How's the retrieval coming?"
"Almost done, we'll be able to move out in ten."
"Okay, get Metro in here to clean this up and lets move out. Gather the dead and wounded and mount up."
"Yes sir." Sgt. Yamaguchi saluted. He took one last look over the battlefield and sighed. When was Genom going to learn; he knew, so did his bosses, that there was no beating them in the Boardroom, but when would Genom learn that they wouldn't, couldn't it seemed, beat Det. 3 on the battlefield.

It seemed that the massacre, as it was being called by Genom's spin team, had been the last straw, and a nameless Genom executive of the Press Relations Committee had come out and stated that the ADP would be dissolved, and a new boomer police force would be created in their place. Still airborne, Tasha had heard the news, she wasn't angry, oh no, not at all, after all she'd been doing everything in her power to keep the ADP in operation, but this, it was too soon, she knew the UN wasn't ready, hell they hadn't even brought the measure up for debate. But 'would be dissolved', wasn't the same as 'being dissolved'. There were still a few cards to play, and maybe, just maybe that would buy her, them, the time they needed.
At home Sgt. Yamaguchi watched the news, and reflected back on his earlier thought, maybe they had learned after all. He swore, which annoyed his wife, and went to the fridge for an Asahi. As he tugged it back he smiled, he didn't know what, or when, but he was sure that his bosses would, come up with something, they had a habit of doing that. It was a long shot, he knew, but there was hope. He almost spit his beer out however when the news switched to a UN press conference with the US Ambassador speaking.

"It is the position of our administration that due to current events, an agency is needed to be put into place to monitor and deal with the steady increase in boomer and boomer related crimes. A global ADP if you will. We plan for first phase of this new initiative, with UN authorization, and support from our allies worldwide, to deploy peacekeeping forces to augment and assist the ADP in Tokyo in their efforts to return stability to Japan's capital. We feel with the success of this, we will then be able to move forward with the creation of this new agency, or UNADP, to combat the growing problems we are facing, now, and into the future."

Tasha's phone rang; it was Linna.
"Hey there, having fun?"
"Not really, where are you?"
"Just past Guam, maybe an hour out."
"Want me to pick you up?"
"I'm landing in Osaka sweetie. But I'll be coming back on the Metrolink."
"Which station, Shinjuku or Tokyo."
"Tokyo, less of a walk."
"Okay, I'll meet you there, call me when you've got a track number okay."
"Is everything all right?" Tasha asked.
"There was a huge firefight on the highway."
"Yeah, I heard about that."
"No silly, not the one I saw you bring up on C-SPAN, after it."
"I know about that one too."
"Humph, figured you would. Than you know what Genom said afterwards."
"Yeah, dissolution and all that."
"What are you going to do?"
"Fight it of course."
"Tasha, what if, well, what if you can't?"
"I'm not sure where you're going with this." Tasha replied, slightly confused.
"I'm worried, I mean if they close the ADP, where will you go, I mean they're liable to kick you out of the country?"
"Oh, I get it now. Sorry." Tasha said, with a slight laugh.
Linna remained silent, waiting for her answer.
"I guess I could always get BOQ on base."
"BOQ?" Linna asked.
"Bachelors Officers Quarters."
"Oh. You can stay with me, if you want." Linna offered hopefully.
Tasha laughed.
"I'd like that, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, anyway, remember I told you that things were much better, this is just a minor set back, it's really no big deal, besides I've some tricks left, and it's not over till the fat boomer sings right?"
Linna laughed.
"Yeah, you're right, but Jesus Tasha, it's getting messy, even the others are concerned."
"Really? Well you can let the boss lady know I'm not out for her job or anything."
"Hah, I never thought of that, you think that's really why she's worried?"
"No, at least I hope not, I think it's because if the ADP goes south that you'll be all that's left, rouge boomers, cop boomers, what's next?"
"Yeah, well, I'll see you at the station okay, you'll call me right?"
"Well, unless the plane suddenly crashes into the sea yes I will."
"Goddammit Tasha, don't talk like that! I'm scared enough as it is."
"I...I'm sorry. I'll be fine. And I'll call you as soon as I know which track okay."
"Okay."
Linna hung up and sighed, leaning back against the wall, stupid Tasha, saying something like that. Now she was going to worry about that for the next two hours.
Her phone rang about an hour earlier than she'd expected and it was Tasha.
"Hey there, just wanted to tell you that I've landed safe and sound. Don't be mad at me."
"Oh thank god! Okay, I'll head to the station in a half hour."
"Better make it forty-five okay. Less exposure that way."
"Right, hadn't thought about that. Okay. Love you."
"I love you too."

Linna was waiting there for her when she got of the train, wearing her BDU's. She'd changed on the plane, no use mussing up her Mess Dress. They hugged and Linna hefted her bag as Tasha scoffed good-naturedly at the gesture, but relented.
"Does Genom know you're back yet?"
"I can't think of any reason why they should, still doesn't mean they don't."
"Oh."
"What's on your mind?"
"I just wanted to grab a bite to eat, but not at the HiC."
"Tired of gourmet food already?" Tasha teased.
Linna looked up at her with an exasperated smile.
"Uh huh, and who was the one that was bitching about being cooped up?"
"Okay, okay, you win. Here, hold on a sec."
Linna stopped and watched as Tasha dug around inside her duffle. She groaned as she pulled out her holsters, all three of them, one for her 10g. pistol, the other for her 14in blade and the other, a shoulder rig for her .50 Jericho.
"You're going to be the death of me Tasha you know that."
"God I hope not."
Linna laughed and readjusted the strap of Tasha's bag over her shoulder. Funny, it felt a whole lot lighter.
On the way to a food joint a few cars slowed, almost throwing Tasha into battle mode until they honked and made a thumbs up gesture or called out thing's like "Stick it to 'em Major!" The same phenomena was repeated on the street as well, as passersby, notably almost all western smiled and waved at her, one even stopped to shake her hand. Conversely, those of local decent that recognized her looked away or ignored her.
"So, how does it feel to be Miss Famous?" Linna asked, bumping playfully into her.
"Scary." She admitted. "Plus it's probably the uniform."
"Heh, maybe, anyway, you said you had tricks? What are you gonna do?"
"Protest thru channels, that might slow it down some, aside from that I've gotta do a little digging, see what options I have."
The meal was good, and thankfully quiet, although a few folks picked her out of the crowd. The response was overwhelmingly positive amidst a few upturned index fingers or dirty names. She ignored those and focused on the positive, feeling for the first time that maybe all her efforts hadn't been in vain and that she was in fact doing some good. Later that night, back in the safety of the HiC, Linna clung to her tighter and closer than before. The made small talk, snuggled and necked before sleep took them and Tasha was happy for it, she was positively exhausted, suffering from a serious case of jetlag.

* * *

Tuesday started off interesting, Genom showed up at the Totem Pole with a slew of news crews and at least twenty trucks. They demanded entry until Tasha informed them that they had no documentation to allow it. That hadn't made them happy, and she watched as two covert boomers left in a sedan to go get it. She thought about asking Tony to deal with them, but after the freeway incident the last thing she wanted to do was bring another firefight down on the city. So, instead she accessed the city traffic grid and bided her time, until, just south of Disneyland Tokyo, right by the docks, she arranged for a green light to stay green just a tad bit longer than usual.
As the Genom sedan crossed into the intersection there was a screech of tires. The Boomer driver turned to his right and blinked when it saw a Peterbilt 399XLS bearing towards their vehicle going sixty. The words. "Collision Imminent" had scarcely scrolled across his vision when the truck slammed into him. The force of the impact carried the sedan a good quarter of a mile before it was thrown into a streetlamp, bending it over the car like a 5 Yen piece of wire. When the Metro first responders called in that they had two damaged boomers, one had just collapsed, the other, on fire, was ambling down the road, she asked Leon and Daley, backed up by a Armored Squad, to deal with it.
"Elise?" She called out into the CIC.
"Yes ma'am?"
"Um...I'm trying to delete some information, can you double check my work?"
"Sure." As she did so she looked up at her boss with a slight smile.
"What?" Tasha replied innocently.
Elise shook her head in amusement and tapped a few keys.
"There you go, all clean."
"Thanks."
"Any time."

At Hugh Gait, just today reopened for business in the wake of the terrific spate of terrorist attacks, with security more evident than ever. Linna was dutifully typing away at her keyboard. She didn't really feel like having a run in with the Office Boomer and decided that immersing herself into her work was a sure fire way to accomplish that. Besides, it made the time go buy, so when her phone rang at noon she was startled, not only by the interruption, but also at what time it was.
"Miss Yamazaki, you have a visitor." The foyer desk operator said.
"Okay, thank you, I'll be right down."
Must be Priss she thought, Tasha would've just waved her badge and came up here. She was right. She noticed Priss had a band-aid on her forehead. That was new, she hadn't seen her since the day prior to the bridge going up; she'd talked to Sylia, and Nene, but for some reason she'd been unable to get in contact with her.
"Hey, how's it going? Ooo, what's with the bandage?"
Priss shrugged.
"Got it when my trailer did the funky chicken. When that damn bridge went up it threw it about ten feet, and me all up out of bed."
Linna put her hand to her mouth and stifled a laugh, if Priss found out that Tasha and her friends had been responsible for that...well, it wouldn't help the 'peace process' any.
"I'm glad you think it's funny." Priss tossed back.
"Yeah, like when I had a similar cut huh." Linna parried.
Priss paused, eyeing her.
"Yeah, I guess." She whispered. "So what happened?"
"Well, I tried to call, but you didn't pick up." Linna informed.
Priss snorted.
"Yeah well I just found my phone today."
"And you didn't follow the ring?"
"Hey, I turned it off before I went to bed all right! Gimme a break."
"Okay, okay, just asking." Linna smiled, holding her hands up in mock surrender.
"So what do you want to know? I'm sure you've talked to Nene, she probably knows more than I do anyway."
"Yeah, and give that little squirt the satisfaction, no way."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Linna smiled. Priss looked away slightly than back.
"Sure fine, whatever."
"Um...if you don't mind me asking, why the sudden interest in the ADP?"
Priss narrowed her eyes and Linna was sure she saw her blush.
"Hey, I just wanna know if they're gonna be out of job or not."
"Not likely."
"So that crap about the UN is true?"
"What UN crap?"
"You mean you haven't heard?"
"Well I haven't watched the news since yesterday afternoon, it was getting too scary."
"Well shit, the UN came out and said that they're gonna send in peacekeepers to take over the ADP."
Linna looked stunned. She was sure Tasha would have told her that, unless she didn't know, but how could that be, she just came from the UN, that must mean she was asked to keep it a secret.
"So that's what they were talking to her about." She muttered aloud.
"Who to who?" Priss asked.
"Tasha, she had, visitors, the other day. And she said she couldn't tell me about it."
"Fuck I knew it!" Priss huffed. "Just what we need, more over armed bozo's on the streets. Your friend of yours probably talked them into it too."
"Priss..." Linna said evenly. "I think the Prometheus Incident did all the convincing, that and the footage that was on C-SPAN at the UN the other day. I mean come on, it's pretty obvious that the shit has hit the fan, I mean, look at what we've had to deal with. It's getting worse, not better."
Priss huffed again than asked about what they were going to do for lunch, changing the subject. Linna took that to mean she agreed, but wasn't going to say it, after all she knew as well as she did that the number and intensity of boomer incidents was getting higher and more lethal. The boomers that Det. 3 had been dealing with non-withstanding, boomers were still going berserk almost every other day. And that wasn't even taking into consideration the global picture, if you took that into account it shot up to at least eighty a day.

Tasha stood by the fifth floor window at parade rest watching the gathered Genom throng and the news crews within. Most of them looked nervous, some board, the rest were just milling about. The CIC had been monitoring their radio chatter, most likely without their knowledge, as they talked as if they were sure no one was listening. They had found out about the accident. Leon and his backup rolling thru their lines without so much as a sideward glance had told them something was up. She watched as another sedan rolled up, dropping off two more boomer bodyguards for the executive on scene. She smirked when she saw him emerge from his limo, he'd retreated there after he'd heard about the fender bender, and hadn't come back out until now. She had called Director Briggs, and had asked for his help. She'd told him what she was doing in regards to formal protests; she admitted that she wasn't the most political of animals, and that any information would be helpful. He'd had her call back a half hour later and when she did he had given her a gold mine.
"Well, here's the deal, a document of this magnitude must be A: in the proper format. I'm sending a copy of that along for you to look at. B: They have to have all the councilmen's signatures, and C: This is most likely the one they'll mess up on, they need the Emperor's Seal." He'd said.
"But isn't the Emperor purely ornamental?" She'd asked.
"Yes, and no, in matters like this, matters that can effect Japan as a whole, he, as their 'cultural' leader needs to give his stamp of approval. Of course over the years this little technicality has been ignored and laws still pass, but 'technically' his seal has to be there." He'd replied.
If the document didn't meet those three criteria, it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on, Director Briggs had been a tab bit more colorful, suggesting that she might as well tear it into pieces and use it for toilet paper.

Tony and Karl on the other hand were busy salting the dog. In military lingua franca, a 'Salty Dog' described an event wherein a certain piece or pieces of equipment were reported either stolen, lost, damaged, or destroyed in order to get a replacement, when in reality the equipment in question was still perfectly intact and in the possession of the reporting individual. Tony knew that should Genom gain access that all of Det. 3's assets would be immediately and forever removed. Tasha had stunned him much the way he'd stunned her with his strike idea by suggesting that since Genom was so good as fabricating incidents that maybe they should do the same. Arrange a battle, she'd said, where Det. 3 gives it's all but loses most if not all of its equipment in the ensuing firefight. When the UN moves in, we can then bring back our toys and 'reconstitute' the loss. So when Karl came to her office to report that, shock and horror, the weaponry and main rotor bearings on all the Firebee's were gone, well, she just knew she had to tell the Chief.
When she entered his office she saw a cardboard box on his desk as well as a flask of scotch and a half empty shot glass. She was at the same time surprised, and disappointed.
"Chief?"
"Hey there Natasha. What have you got for me?"
"Well given your current state, nothing that's gonna make you smile."
He downed the rest of the shot and waved her to sit.
"What is it?"
"Well, we've just got a report that all of the 20mm cannons and the main rotor bearings for our Firebee's have gone missing. Our ground crews suspect sabotage and theft."
He eyed her.
"Sure they do. Look Tasha, what aren't you telling me."
"I'm sure I don't know."
"Oh come on, don't take me for a fool. I've been seeing people pushing carts of equipment past my office for the last two hours."
She blushed and smiled innocently.
"You've been hanging around those two malcontents to much." He said.
She sighed, oh well, might as well let him know.
"Fine sir, I'll tell you."
"Good." He breathed in mock elation. Sitting back into his chair.
"We all know that once Genom's Repo men get inside that everything that isn't nailed down is going out the door faster than it came in. We also know that they want to replace us with a boomer only police force, and you and I know what that means."
He nodded.
"I'm doing some digging and..." As if on cue her phone rang. She answered; it was Nene.
"Ma'am, I've got that info you asked for. We're still trying to find more, but this is what we've got do far."
"What's all that?" Nick Roland asked as he watched her pull out her PDA and page thru some screens. She handed it over.
"The Org chart for the new boomer police force as well as the schematics and capabilities of the boomers intended to be employed."
He looked over the document. Than handed it back to her.
"I don't even want to know where that came from." He rubbed his temples and sighed.
"So tell me miss cloak and dagger, what exactly are you up to with your gremlins running about."
"Well, without revealing to much..." She rolled her eyes facetiously. "...Party A: Det 3. Responds to a call versus Party B. Fireworks ensue and Party A tragically loses most if not all of it's heavy equipment and Party B, damn the luck, gets away. Therefore Party C, Genom, cannot reclaim Party A's assets."
He blinked once or twice, not all that sure how to react. If he were a first year cadet he'd have laughed his ass off at the sheer audacity of it, loving every minute. But he wasn't a first year cadet; he was the Chief. And as the Chief he would give tacit approval, and God have mercy on his soul.
"You could have just told me Tasha."
She blushed.
"I felt that for deniability's sake it would be best for you not to know."
He snorted.
"You know, I'll tell you what, when we lose our jobs..." He tapped the cardboard box; which she now noticed had various articles from his desk inside. "...I'll put in a nice letter to the CIA recommending you. I think you missed your calling."
She bristled; she hadn't intended to say anything about it, but now felt she had no choice.
"May I speak freely sir."
"Sure."
"Just what the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Huh?"
"You're tipsy, halfway packed and suffering from the most blatant case of defeatism I've ever seen. How dare you present yourself like that to your subordinates? You're the Chief, not some over the hill Det commander. It doesn't matter if the building is on the verge of collapse, you don't show weakness. You don't show fear. And you sure as hell don't show anyone you're whipped."
He blinked again a few times. He'd never seen her angry before, more over, never angry with him.
"I don't care if you think it's all over. So what, it might be. But you don't show it, not to the troops, not to the senior staff, not to me, and especially not to the enemy. If we see you admitting defeat, what are we supposed to think? A lot of us here love the ADP, sure it's the pits at times, but big deal, we're family, especially those in the building now. These are the most loyal and dedicated officers you've got, and they're busting their ass for what? To keep the ADP alive while their Chief is getting plastered as he packs his shit! That doesn't seem right."
He turned red, and she knew that maybe she'd gone a little far. She toned her voice down and stood.
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I've got some reports I need to write up. That will take a half an hour at least. When I am done I will come back here to deliver them to you. I expect your belongings to be on your desk and shelves where they belong and the bottle and glass stowed. If that is all, I have to return to my duty station."
She saluted crisply and executed a perfect about face than strode from the office, closing the door behind her.

Before she could return to his office she was notified that the Genom executive was demanding entrance again. She grabbed her helmet and firearms, strapping them on as she waited for the elevator to the lobby. When it opened the Chief was standing inside, looking clear eyed and standing up straight. His clothing was still a tad wrinkly, but he was holding his head high and wore a look of confidence.
"Chief." She nodded.
"Director." He nodded back.
"Come to see the show?" She asked.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." He replied.
When they walked out of the elevator onto the lobby floor there were at least ten Frontliners standing by. The watch officers and the reporters from FOX News and CNN were also present, the only two news agencies that had been allowed in. The logic being, since the local news agencies weren't going to report fairly anyway, what use was it giving them material to spin. It was her way of snubbing them for their piss poor treatment of the truth over the last week.
"You want to take this sir?"
"Oh hell no, besides, they asked for you, I think they want to embarrass you on national television."
"Oh goodie." She smiled. "I get to be on the TV."
She straightened her hair and armor; she liked the new armor she'd gotten for Det. 3. Not only did it offer more protection but it also looked positively dangerous. Of course it cost a pretty penny, but than again, one shouldn't put a price on life. One of the guards gave her a supportive nod as he toggled the switch to lift the blast door.
Outside the Genom executive was flanked by his new body guards and backed up by twenty security officers, and she noticed that the technicians had come off their 'break', and were pulling pallet loaders into place.
"Yes?" She asked as if he were the Fuller Brush man.
"Genom Incorporated herewith orders the ADP to cease and desist any and all operations, and to vacate the premises immediately. Failure to comply will result in forcible eviction." He sneered. 'Oooo, he's been practicing this speech all day', she bet.
She held out her hand for the documentation, perused it, than smiled. Regaining a serious expression she handed the forms back to him.
"Re-accomplish the forms, than come and see me."
She took a step backwards and motioned with her hand to the officer manning the door. The Genom executive stood baffled as the ten-ton security door lowered back into place.
She waited as thru a nearby security monitor she watched him walk up and bang on the door. His fist against the wrought iron steel did no good so instead he had one of his boomer bodyguard's knock loudly for him. She lifted herself off her heels onto her tiptoes a few times, clearly enjoying the moment, giving an 'Oh he's really mad now' look to the door guard.
Putting her hand to her mouth she coughed slightly to remove the giddy lump in her throat and nodded to the gate guard to open the doors again.
"How dare you! You, you arrogant..." He censored himself before he lost any female constituents for his company, as she made a come closer gesture to the news crews outside, and in. As they converged she took another step forward and extended her hand for the paperwork. He all but tossed it to her. She flipped it open past the cover page, and stood next to him, as a teacher would with a student and pointed to the document.
"Well, first of all, the format is all wrong. It needs to look like this." She produced the sample document in the correct format.
"Second. This guy here, where it says, "Signature acquired by telephone/fax." Well, according to Paragraph 6 Article 4 of the Diet charter, for this document to be legal and binding it needs to have the actual signature of all Diet members. And third..." She was really enjoying herself now. "...I don't see the Emperors seal anywhere on this document. And I shouldn't even need to tell you which regulation calls for that." She said as if even the most rustic hick should know that.
"So once all that's on there, come on back. Okay." She finished, maternally patting him on the shoulder.
He shrugged her hand off his shoulder with a violent tug and snatched the document from her hands then, almost pouting, stormed down the stairs and into his limo.
Walking back into the ADP HQ Building followed by the approved news crews she waited for the door to shut all the way before she smiled up at the Chief.
"You know sir. Its days like this when I really love my job."

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