Title: Between II - The Long Walk 7/10

Author: ebonbird (ebonbird@hotmail.com)

Rating: PG

Summary: This is the sequel to "Between" which is

available @ http://ebonbird.tripod.com/stories.htm.

Though based upon episodes 89-104 of Gatchaman I this

story only loosely follows those events.

Contributing tunes: Time Has Come Today - The Chambers

Brothers; Pusher Man - Curtis Mayfield; Spanish Eyes - Back

Street Boys; Never Can Say Goodbye - Jackson Five; All I

Want - Angel Moon; Plenty - Sarah McLachlan; Mighty Love -

The Spinners; Gymnopedie 1, 2 and 3 - Eric Satie; Could I Be

Your Girl - Jann Arden; Ooh Child - The 5 Stairsteps; Paint It

Black - The Rolling Stones.

Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me. They

are used without permission. Tatsunuko, Co. Leave me

be, this is flattery.

Comments & Criticism: yes, please.



Thanks to BeckyD, Lori McDonald, Naa Dei-Nikoi, John

Duffin, Sal, Stephanie Wilson, Wildcat & Kim Wylie

for beta-reading and encouragement.



******************

7.





Temporary HQ's off-tempo red alert rang a little louder than it

should have on the fourth count. Her fault. The changes she'd

made so Joe could get out were having effects she hadn't

anticipated. The changes were distracting her from her assigned

task. That and Ken's stare. He leaned against the railing of the

first tier of the command center, arms bent back, his hands

hooked over the top rail. Over his shoulder she could just see the

viewscreen playing images of destruction.



Joe had been busy.



She typed a series of commands. Her wristcom vibrated in

sympathy, numbing her arm from wrist to elbow.



/Whatever you just did,\ Ken's fingers signed, the blamp-blamp-

blamp-blamp of the alarms making all but shouted

communication impossible in the command center, /Don't do it

again.\



With the first images of the remains of the Circle K discount

CD/DVD warehouse and the largest nightclub on Hana Drive the

command center had gone quiet except for the rapid tak of

fingers on keypads, and Nambu's voice issuing commands.

The first cheers had died down when people realized that the

places AWOL Condor Joe, G2, had flattened were Galactor

operations that no one in the command center, except Nambu,

had known about - and all of them deep in Utoland City, territory

thought inviolate by the ISO.



And only Nambu had known about them.



The messengers and couriers had been coming fast and swift

through the double doors, trailing behind Nambu's flapping white

coattails as he dashed from station to station with uncanny

aplomb.



If it hadn't been for the gray circles of sweat beneath his arms,

the cloth wet enough for her to make out the patterns of his

madras shirt, Jun would have thought that the scorched sky over

Hana Drive as shown by the view screen, greasy smoke sporing

over shattered walls and pilons of the three story converted

warehouse that only hours earlier had been P Infinity, its loading

dock littered with bodies, fused asphalt and glass, and flames

spiking over dark rainbow oil slicks were something Nambu

expected.



Nambu being a great one for secret plans.



Joe had been busy since he'd gone AWOL, and she'd thought

him on the way to BC Island, Sicily where his parents had been

assassinated. She'd panicked when Nambu hailed her via the

wristcom, demanding that she present herself to the command

center and track down Joe's whereabouts, locking her jaw

against the urge to wail out loud so hard that minutes later, her

jaw was still clicking.



They'd found Joe's car soon after and Ryu had gone to pick it up

and take back any Galactor survivors for questioning, not that

Jun expected there to be any.



Joe was nothing if not thorough.



Part of Jun admired Joe's efficiency. She may not have been

able to do a better job of bringing down that club herself; but

when Nambu had begun rattling off locations where Joe might

turn up, and each of those turned out to be Galactor franchises,

part of her was appalled that Joe had managed to discover that

she, with all her training and access to Nambu's files, had not.



Jun had never seen Nambu move, nor heard him talk, so fast.



Ken was still staring at her.



The image on the screen changed, showing the record shop

where it was assumed that Joe had begun his rampage. The

windows were cracked, starred really, and body matter opaqued

the glass.



"Report!" Nambu snapped. Then muttered, "There's no telling

what Galactor will do in retaliation."



Jun shivered. Tried another command.



Joe was probably dead, if not completely crazy.



The tech at Nambu's elbow swallowed audibly. Ken ran down

the stairs and snatched the printout from the frozen tech's hands.



"No survivors." Ken answered. "Twenty dead."



"Civilian fatalities?"



"None."



"Oh, thank the Lord."



Ken grabbed the tech by the arm, shoved the printout into his

hand. Said something to him that was lost in the upswell of

noise.



Nambu tore his eyes from the carnage on the screen and pinned

Jun with his gaze.



She shook her head, no. Typed commands faster.



Ken ran up the stairs, put a hand on the back of her chair and

another on her desk. "Report?" he murmured.



"He's not responding."



"If he's still there," Ken's chin jerked towards the screen. Grainy

images of the parking lot behind the CD/DVD warehouse ripe

with dying flame (and bodies, more bodies) more bodies than

should have fit into the 120 sq. foot shop. Subterranean levels

then, and a two fifths of them dressed in Galactor infantry green.



"Concentrate on the task. You're thinking too much," Ken said.



"Some of those people are probably ours." Jun said.

"Undercover for the ISO. That's probably how Joe--"



"Keep it together," snapped Ken.



Jun bit her lip.



"Do you have a signal yet for me?" demanded Nambu.



"No," she whispered.



"Hakase," a tech shrilled, "Director Kane is requesting your

presence in conference room B."



Nambu pushed the tech out of his way, stalked to Jun's station.

"Jun?" he snapped grabbing the railing beneath her station and

glaring up at her. "I need that information."



"Give her time, Hakase," Ken said. "She's working as fast as she

can." He put a hand on Jun's shoulder, his fingers tight.



Jun swallowed.



Another courier approached Nambu. This one looked shocky.



"What is it?" from Nambu.



"We're getting more reports from Pier Infinity. Indications of

nerve toxin use."



Nambu's face, stoic at the best of the times, went even calmer,

but again, it was his voice that gave him away. Water was never

as airless unless at the very bottom of the ocean. "This city may

never recover from what the Condor's set in motion."



"Hakase?" asked Ken.



"Continue your search from the God Phoenix. You've

accomplished nothing here."



They watched Nambu exit the door, be accosted by aides and

military men before the door swung shut behind him. More

images on the screen from Pier 23, where a massage parlor,

against all zoning laws of Utoland City, had once stood.



"How did he?" Jun murmured, her eyes screwed open. "How did

he?"



Ken's hand was on the back of her neck. "Relax," he instructed.

"Focus."



"How di- how did . . . ?"



"How did Joe find out what Galactor was up to right in our

backyard?" Ken asked.



Jun nodded, sucking her lower lip into her mouth.



"Anyone should know, it would be you."



"I would never -"



"Why can't you find him?"



"I'm trying. I've been trying. The wristcoms aren't designed --- he



Ken softened his voice. "We will find him. We will bring him back

and we will put him in the hospital and he will get better."



Jun was shaking her head, tears standing in her eyes even as

she tried another set of commands. Both their wristcoms began

to vibrate.



"We'll try again from the God Phoenix. We will find him."



"No we won't. No we won't. He's gone out there to die."



"Shut up! Don't say that! He wouldn't do that!"



"Like he wouldn't hurt Jinpei?"



Grabbing her by the arm, Ken pulled her out of her seat. "Get up.

And quit crying. Might as well kill him yourself."



Ken's hand was so strong, wrapped around her wrist. Her trying

to shake it loose only made him strengthen his hold as they ran

down the corridor to the God Phoenix's bay.







******************

end 7/10







"I hate women who say pretty=stupid.

They're really misogynistic men in drag."

~~~BeckyD



ebonbird's fan fic cache http://ebonbird.tripod.com

the storm archive http://ebonbird.tripod.com/stormarchive.html

_________________________________________________________________

Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com