For his size, the man was ridiculously fast and skilled.
"Did you honestly think you could take me in hand-to-hand combat?"
As he fell back a few steps, Sousuke's rear foot found a concrete block. He leapt off the block, flinging a vicious jump kick toward the man's jaw.
With a grunt, the goliath toppled. His head smacked the asphalt, and his limbs splayed. Without delay, Sousuke pulled out his stun gun and zapped the man.
"B-b-bastard," sputtered the convulsing man.
"Wh-wh-wh-who a-a-a-are y-y-y-you?"
"I'm the garbage man."
Finally, the man stopped struggling against the electric current.
Sousuke expertly bound and gagged him, using whatever materials he could scrounge from the storehouse; then, he examined his transmitter. It was cracked, and its circuitry guts spilled out. He flipped the switch a couple of times to no effect.
He would not be able to contact the de Danaan.
After collecting the unconscious man's pistol, Sousuke rifled through his first-aid supplies. The case contained sulfuric acid, aspirin, morphine, a syringe, some bandages, and a few other items.
Eventually, he found what he was looking for: a small bottle of alcohol.
According to Kaname's estimates, she had been in the cramped tube for several hours already.
It was so tight inside that experimental drum that Kaname couldn't move enough to alleviate the pain in her shoulders or back, and the frigid doctor ignored Kaname's requests for a break.
The whole time Kaname was in the chamber, images of unknown meaning flashed in front of her. Somehow, the doctor knew whenever the girl closed her eyes, as she immediately would yell at Kaname to keep looking ahead. The doctor had said that if Kaname focused, it wouldn't take as long.
Suddenly, the images ceased flowing, and Kaname was surrounded by blackness.
"Is it over?"
After a moment, a strange noise answered her question—a heavy, distant sound seemed to be coming from all sides at once. It made her nervous.
"What is this?"
Again, the doctor said nothing.
Images began to appear on the screen in front of her.
This time, they were words that changed every two seconds or so.
After a while, the pace picked up. Eventually, the nonsensical words came and went at a rate of ten per second. After that, the simple words like "tree" and "sea" stopped appearing, and there were only formulas and technical terms.
Kaname became aware that she was staring.
She wasn't familiar with the words, but somehow, Kaname comprehended their meaning. She understood the concepts better than the greatest scholars in the world.
Her thoughts knew no limits.
Erupting like a data volcano, Kaname felt a chill, as if someone in the back of her mind were
Suddenly, the voice was silent.
The display went black, and the strange noise quieted. The tube holding her opened.
More than anything, Kaname felt profound fatigue. She was short of breath, her face flushed. She struggled to understand what had happened.
"How do you feel?" asked the doctor, pulling an apparatus off Kaname's head. The light seemed excessively glaring to her.
"Terrible."
"I see." The doctor made a note of it on a chart. "Regardless, the experiment must continue."
"Please, just let me go," begged Kaname. "I've had enough of this sleep learning."
"Learning? Don't be ridiculous. These are all things you've known since before you were born."
Smiling cruelly, the doctor pulled out a syringe.
"Everything must be swift," proclaimed Kalinin.
In all, more than thirty soldiers peopled the cramped briefing room.
AS operators, helicopter pilots, VTOL aces, and foot soldiers listened intently, Mao and Weber among them. As soon as they heard about the hijacking, they returned to the de Danaan.
"If we delay any longer, the situation likely will get worse. Now, generally, Mithril does not like to get involved in situations that are so squarely in the whole world's sights. However—and this is regrettable—we failed to prevent this circumstance."
Kalinin paused to make sure everyone was still with him. "That's why we're going on a rescue mission."
A satellite photo of Sunan popped up on the screen behind Kalinin. It was a picture from fifteen-hundred thirty that same day, showing where the enemy forces were and where the jet was.
