And no matter how much Sousuke pled his case, no matter how many bullets struck the side of the trailer, Kaname continued her verbal assault.
Eventually, Kaname beat Sousuke into submission, and he loaned her his jacket.
Between bursts of gunfire, Sousuke grabbed Kaname by the hand and made a break for one of the other trailers.
"Quickly! "
Tossing Kaname into the passenger seat of the truck cab, Sousuke fired up the engine, jerked the machine into gear, and peeled out. Gunfire continued behind them, tearing off the license plate.
"Keep your head down!"
"Hey, what gives?"
Soldiers gave chase, firing intermittently. By that time, however, the power-supply trailer hurtled northward at fifty miles per hour.
"Who are you? Where are we going? What are you going to do?" pestered Kaname. "Tell me!"
Keeping one eye on the road and the other on the rearview mirror, Sousuke responded. "I've been tailing you ever since I transferred in."
"Tell me something I don't know!"
"Honestly, I don't know exactly what's going on. My information is that you are somehow unique. Whoever those people are, they want to use you as a test subject."
"Test subject?"
"Correct. And in order to stop that from happening, an elite soldier was sent to guard you. I am that soldier."
Still suspicious, Kaname pressed for details. "Soldier? You're from the self-defense force or what?"
"Mithril."
"Mithril? What's that?"
"It's a secret military organization without any national affiliations." The reply sounded rehearsed. "We're an elite force that prevents regional conflicts and practices anti-terrorist warfare. I'm a member of the SRT—Special Response Team. I specialize in reconnaissance and sabotage as well as AS operation. My rank is sergeant, my call sign is Urzu Seven, and my identification number is B3128."
"Look, Sagara," Kaname began, sounding concerned, "I know you're a war nut and everything, but I think you need help."
"What do you mean?"
"I've read about this. Sometimes, a big crisis situation will cause people to lose sight of themselves. I don't know how you got out of that plane, but you're totally delusional right now."
"Delusional?" he repeated, confident that only one of the two people in the vehicle could be considered delusional.
"Yes. You have to tell yourself you're just a high school student and take a few deep breaths."
Suddenly, Sousuke cranked the wheel.
An armored vehicle had pursued them and now opened fire! Machine-gun fire grazed the right side of the trailer, and chunks of mud and asphalt rained down on them.
"Eeeek! Stop! Let me out!"
"Be quiet and hang on."
Swinging left and right, the vehicle somehow evaded enemy fire. Steadily, they got closer to the northern end of the base.
"Get down. Were going to crash through."
"What? Hold on—"
But seeing how serious he was, Kaname braced herself just as the power-supply vehicle crashed into the rusty hangar door, which crumpled like a candy wrapper. The vehicle continued to skid, ricocheting off some of the tractors and planes parked in the hangar.
After they came to a stop, Sousuke stood up and looked around.
"Chidori, can you move?"
"Please, God, take me now."
"Get up. The opposition is coming."
Looking around the hangar, Kaname saw a line of large humanoid machines, three in all. The khaki-colored, long-armed mechs were about the same height as a three-story house.
"Arm Slaves," whispered Kaname, who had seen them only in movies and on TV.
"Hide in the back for a moment."
"You're not going to get in one, are you?"
"Yes, I intend to."
Sousuke ran to the feet of an AS and started to climb the ladder to its cockpit.
It was too late for Kaname to stop him. She paled. The delusional war nut was dangerously unpredictable. She resented him for dragging her along on this escalating suicide action and for thinking he could somehow pilot a combat robot.
It was the last straw.
The soldiers would arrive shortly. There was no way he could win against professionals. Kaname knew she would be killed alongside this idiot.
"Come down from there, Sousuke!" she shouted. "There's no way an amateur can pilot that robot!"
"Amateur?" Sousuke smiled, his eyes sparkling eerily. "I told you: I'm a specialist."
Climbing onto the shoulder of the AS, Sousuke pulled the cockpit hatch release lever, pleased with the familiar pneumatic hiss.
The head of the AS slid open, revealing a cockpit just large enough to hold one person. When she saw the cockpit with Sousuke inside it, Kaname realized that a person did not "ride" in an AS so much as one "wore" it.
