Aite Chp. 6 Kyla tapped the dossier in front of her nervously. She had a bad feeling about this one. Hermann Getz was one of Nambu's most trusted agents, a 28-year-old man who was hell on wheels at unarmed and armed combat and who had a decided talent for impersonating Galactors. He was the son of a woman whose husband had been a Galactor, and who had left the man and fled to Nambu for protection. Nambu had relocated the wife and son under different identities, and when the woman had died of the long-term effects of an injury her husband had dealt her, Nambu had paid for the son's college education and given him what he most wanted-- training in the disciplines that would enable him to get revenge on Galactor. His record was impeccable. Nambu had a closer personal relationship with him than he did with most of his agents, having known him from early adolescence, and trusted him completely. His hatred for Galactor could be vouched for by a dozen coworkers and friends. In fact, he was a lot like Joe, enough so that before Jay turned up alive Nambu had been thinking of using him as Joe's replacement. And yet there was something that bothered Kyla about him. He'd been working undercover in Galactor, these past few months, and had sent information about one of their "top bases", ripe for the picking. Only, if Kyla was reading the data right, either Getz was not nearly as competent an agent as Nambu thought he was, Gel Sadra was a bigger idiot than they all thought, or somebody was flat-out lying. The base had a skeleton crew and was located too near human habitation to fit the guidelines she had set down six years ago. It looked to Kyla like an expendable base, and that was another name for a trap. Besides, there was another reason to be suspicious of Getz. Before she let him guide Jay and the Science Ninja Team anywhere, she was going to interview him. "Kyla, Getz's record is beyond reproach," Nambu said, when she brought the subject up. It had been nearly a month since the revelation of her past, and during that time she had gotten a bit more arrogant with what she knew to Nambu's liking. "And I'm telling you, it doesn't *matter* how beyond reproach he is. You're not thinking clearly, Doctor." She leaned her elbows on his desk and steepled her hands in front of her face, with a thin, superior smile on her lips. "Don't patronize me, Kyla-- I don't happen to have 12 years of experience working for Galactor. What do you mean?" "What do you know about Sigfrid Rheinmann?" "He was Getz's father." "He was also the father of another boy, 2 years older, by a different mother. Apparently Lise Getz neglected to mention him to you-- or, perhaps, she never knew of him. In any case, I trained Johann Rheinmann, and he became one of my best agents. And he was obsessed with finding Lise and getting revenge on her." "Lise is dead." "Yes, but Lise's son Hermann Getz is not-- or was not, three months ago. By Galactor's definition, he was a traitor to them. He might have been recognized, killed, and -- replaced." She leaned back. "That's what I would have done, if I'd caught him." "All right." Nambu nodded. "You'll get your interview." Kyla had persuaded Ken to hide in the closet behind her. "If all goes well, I won't need you," she said. "But if it's true, what I suspect..." "What *do* you suspect?" "That he's a Galactor. I'm going to pull an act on him-- please, don't take what I'm saying seriously and charge out and attack *me*. All right?" Ken reddened slightly. His relationship with Kyla was not quite as strained since her identity had been dealt with openly, but she still sniped occasionally. "If you're so afraid of me, get Jay to wait in the closet." "No. His sense of timing isn't very good. He's likely to charge out and attack before it's time-- ditto Ryu and Jinpei, and Jun just isn't as intimidating. It'd be best if it were you." "All right. When do you want me to come out of the closet?" Kyla's smile was definitely laughing at him, not with him. "Why, whenever you feel ready to," she said, and snickered. "No, seriously. When I say, 'do you know what?', that's your cue." "What's 'whenever I'm ready to' supposed to mean?" "A bit of a joke. Sorry about that." "But what does it *mean*?" "I don't think you want to know." "Kyla, I don't *need* to take this shit from you. We're all on the same side, remember? I don't want your snide little voice sniping at me like you did in the old days." She blinked. "All right. I'm sorry." "You were a lot more polite before you got your memories back." "And I was a lot ruder before I lost them. I *am* sorry-- it's something of second nature for me to snipe at people." "Like it's second nature for you to shoot them in the back?" Her eyes narrowed. "I apologized. What more do you want?" "It seems to me that since you got your memories back, the old behavior patterns are coming back as well." "And you're getting suspicious of me again?" she demanded. "I don't believe this! Ken, I may be getting more obnoxious than I was before I got my memories back-- though I wouldn't count on it. I was pretty obnoxious then, too. But I'm *certainly* in no danger of reverting. Think about this. If I were becoming your enemy again, would I be here?" "You might. You're influential in our spy department. You could pretend you were still on our side, to make us trust you more, and then betray us all." "I could, but that's not what I would do. Let me tell you, Ken-- in the old days, I couldn't have tolerated working for ISO. Simply being around any of you would have been like fingernails scraping down my nerves. I was able to tolerate it for a day or two at a time, if necessary, but I *hated* you people. Nothing whatsoever could make me stay on at ISO, pretending to be your friend-- not even the hope of destroying you all. If I ever do revert, Ken, you'll know it, because I'll run. And if that ever happens, I sincerely hope you track me down and kill me, because I'd rather die than live Berg Katse's life again." She was telling the truth. Or at least, as best as Ken could tell she was telling the truth. And while several of her minor mannerisms had begun to remind him of Katse even more in the past month, others remained new and unique, the mannerisms of a woman that circumstances had forced him to trust. Ken didn't think she could lie to him as easily as she could have when she was Katse-- and that even at his most sincere, Katse could never have seemed as sincere as she did. "All right. I believe you," he said. "But don't make these snide little comments about me." "I won't. I'll try not to, at least. But Ken--" As he was turning away. "I was never the best at making friends, even when I was young. If I say something rude-- chances are, it's an automatic defense. I attack other people before they can attack me. I'm not saying you should forgive me for it, just-- know why. It's not a symptom of wanting to conquer the world." "I *said*, I believe you. Now let's get on with it." He got into the closet. Sighing, Kyla prepared to meet with Getz. He came in with Nambu. "Getz, this is Kyla Samonetti, our new personnel director," Nambu said, as Kyla had asked him to. "She's doing a routine interview checkup with all our people." Kyla studied Getz's face intently, and saw it change as he looked at her-- a widening of the eyes, the faintest trace of a puzzled stare. Kyla smiled, first a tight, trademark little smile for his benefit, then a wide and plastic welcoming smile. "Pleased to meet you," she said. "Do sit down." He did, as Nambu left. As soon as Nambu was gone, Kyla lifted the phone, pressed three digits, and hung up. "There. The room is shielded; we can talk." To Ken in the closet, her voice had a bite to it, transforming it. He hadn't heard *that* voice-- sharp, female but harsh, and redolent with menace-- in years. Kyla had said she was going to pull an act on Getz, and now Ken knew what. But it chilled him slightly, to hear that voice again, all the same. Outside the closet, Getz wore a puzzled look. "About what?" "Don't play the fool with *me*, Rheinmann. I'm not really pregnant-- it's a disguise. Perhaps that will help refresh your memory?" "Oh-- it's *you*!" he said, startled but deferential. "That's-- a magnificent disguise. I recognized your face, but I thought, you couldn't *possibly* be... Besides, they said you were dead." "As you can see, they were wrong," she said. "Your own disguise is very good. You look just like your brother." "Thank you, si-- uh, ma'am. It *is* ma'am?" "Ma'am will do. I suppose *that* little bit of information's all over Galactor by now." "Yes, ma'am. Otherwise I wouldn't have known it was *you*." "Yes, well it can't be helped." "If you don't mind my asking, ma'am... They said the Condor killed you. How *did* you survive? And why did you let Gel Sadra take your place?" "I take it you don't much like my successor," she said in a sardonic tone. Ken was seething inside. *Give me the signal*! She had already proven that the man was a Galactor-- what else was she waiting for? Ken signaled Nambu via Bird Scramble, to let him know that Getz was an impostor, and waited impatiently. "No, ma'am. She's-- well, she's not you. She'll kill you just as soon as look at you, she throws temper tantrums all the time, and she doesn't seem to be very bright. Are you going to come back and take your rightful place?" "That depends. What's the prevailing attitude toward me?" Ken knew Kyla was running a scam on the man, but he couldn't help but feel uneasy when she asked that. Why did she want to know? "Most of the men have turned on you completely," Rheinmann said. "They go around claiming you were a freak and a madman. There's a few of us still loyal, though. *We'd* support you, and I'm sure Sosai would, too. This Gel Sadra idiot is *nothing* compared to you. And she has the nerve to go around calling *you* a fool!" "Well. I do appreciate your loyalty, but plunging Galactor into a bloody civil war seems rather counterproductive right now. I have a position of trust with ISO, as you see--" Kyla waved expansively-- "and I'm perfectly set up to block them. There are a few things I need to know from you, however." "Yes, ma'am?" "Firstly, I take it Easton Island is a trap. What's the setup?" "I'm going to lure the Ninja Team into a specially prepared room. There'll be guards lining the walls. If they can't take the Ninja Team down, the doors will be swallowed into the walls, and a mecha with a laser and motion-detect sensors will come out. The moment they move, they're shredded-- and there'll be an electric eye to find them anyway." "Ah." Kyla smiled. "Sounds intriguing-- I only wish I could be there." In the closet, Ken relaxed, realizing why Kyla hadn't given him the signal yet. She was going to get as much information out of Rheinmann as she could, first. "If *I* wanted to go to the Easton Island base, what's the safe way in?" "On the north side, between the first two giant statues you see some paneled flagstones. You rap on them and give the password." "Which is?" "'Tarantula.' I wouldn't go as *you* if I were you, not alone, if you know what I mean. Go disguised as one of us, or take a bodyguard." "Hmm. Perhaps I should bypass any difficulties and simply turn up at headquarters. Where is it, now? Not Cross Karakoram any more, I take it?" "I don't have clearance to know, ma'am. But it changes around a lot. We get missives from Mobile HQ." "Ah. Not making the same mistake we did last time, I see. A mobile HQ is more difficult to destroy, though it does make for a lot of work. I'm glad to hear you're properly prepared for the Science Ninja Team. What about your brother? Any chance of his warning them?" "None." There was a tight smile on Rheinmann's face. "None at all." "I see. Or that his body will be found?" "By the time anyone finds it, it'll be too late." "Ah. Good. Oh, by the way, did you know what?" "No, wha--" He trailed off, his mouth gaping open, as Ken threw open the closet door. "Gatchaman was in the closet the entire time," Kyla said brightly. Rheinmann went for a gun, but Ken's saucer cut him off. Ken vaulted over the desk and grabbed the Galactor impostor before he could try anything. "Galactor will never succeed in destroying the white shadows of righteousness," he intoned. "But you-- you're Berg Katse!" Rheinmann stammered at Kyla. "How--" "Ah, no. Katse is quite, quite dead. I merely happen to bear a resemblance," Kyla said cheerfully. "I'm *sure* Dr. Nambu is just dying to meet you, Rheinmann." Her voice had changed back to the intonations she used as Kyla. "Come on," Ken said to the Galactor, and dragged him off. Nambu had a security team waiting outside. Kyla smiled as the two men went. This was their key. Tomorrow the Science Ninja Team would begin the destruction of Galactor. And after hearing Gel Sadra's opinion of her, Kyla took a positive glee in the notion that it would be her work that made it possible. On the north side of Easton Island, a man in a Galactor suit bent to the flagstones behind a statue and rapped twice. "Tarantula," he said. The flagstones slid aside, revealing a passage down to a guardroom. The man jumped inside, and proceeded to kick one of the two guards in the jaw, cracking the other with a blow to the back of the neck. They both dropped. On the viewscreens in the guardroom, four bird-suited figures approached. The man stripped off his Galactor costume, revealing jeans and a T-shirt, and raised his left wrist to his right temple. "Bird Go!" Ken lowered his hand and spoke into his bracelet. "Okay. Come on in." The other four leapt down into the guardroom. "Be nice if they were all this easy," Jinpei said, grinning. "Maybe they will be. Kyla claims to have detailed information on ten other bases the Galactors are currently using." Ken turned to Jun, who was already playing with the viewscreens, bringing up images of the base's interior. "Have you found their leader yet?" "Here we go." Jun got an image of Gel Sadra onto the screen. She looked extremely weird, with a mask whose stupidity defied description. "Not too impressive looking." "Good lord," Ryu said, startled. "That *thing*'s their new leader?" "Apparently so." Ken made his decision. "We split up. Jun, Jinpei, Ryu, hit all the usual targets. Computer room, generators, etc. Jay, you and me will go after Gel Sadra." He wanted to keep an eye on Jay, who had so far never been in actual combat. "Sure thing. What's the drill? Kill her or take her alive?" "Alive, if possible. Her information's going to be more recent than Kyla's. If we kill her, it'll cripple the organization, but they'll just go underground again, like they did after you shot Katse, and we'll have to wait until they surface again." He looked around. "Everybody got it? Right, let's go." They split up. Ken and Jay headed for the hub of the Galactor base, following a pattern that was a Science Ninja trademark-- staying motionless and invisible in shadows, waiting, then a sudden blurred rush forward like the wings of a bird, flying past to the next shadow. One set of guards saw them, but didn't get to do anything about it-- Ken's bird saucer knocked the weapons from their hands. There was almost a perceptible hesitation in the air, the men's eyes wide and frightened. *Then* the feather shuriken hit. "Bit slow," Ken murmured to Jay. "In the old days, you'd've got them before me." Jay's eyes were fixed on the dead bodies, staring. "Sorry...about that," he said slowly. "I think it'll be a while before it all comes back..." Why was he staring at the bodies? Was there something wrong? Ken looked the dead Galactors over himself, but saw only a pair of unremarkable dead Galactors. "Jay, are you..." "I'm fine. I'm fine. Let's go." It seemed to take an effort for him to snap his eyes away-- and belatedly, Ken remembered that Jay had no memories of having killed. He must have known logically that he'd be killing, but logic meant little when you were confronted with the first death you'd caused, and this was like his first all over again. Actually, this was more like a first kill than his actual first had been, since if Ken remembered correctly, Joe's reaction to the first Galactor he'd killed was to look for more to kill. "It's them or us, Jay," Ken said softly. "Remember that." "I do. I'm fine. We going to go or what?" "Wait," Ken said. With his cutting saucer, he chopped off the padlock on a nearby janitor's closet. "Hide the bodies in here." "Right." Jay picked up both bodies as if he were handling bundles of rags, and heaved them into the closet with no more apparent effort than it would have taken Ken to throw his laundry in. Ken tossed the broken padlock in after them and shut the door. Then the two of them continued their way into the base. "Where *are* they?" Gel Sadra muttered, staring at the screens. "Rheinmann should have been here with them *ages* ago." "Perhaps he blew his cover, Gel Sadra-sama?" a green-suit suggested. "*Shut up*!" Gel Sadra delivered a resounding smack to his head. "If I'd *wanted* your opinion, I'd've *asked* for it!" She shook her hand back and forth, trying to restore feeling to it. "Ow. What are you men's heads made of, solid steel?" Abruptly noticing that several pairs of eyes were fixed on her, she whirled around. "What are you all looking at? Get back to work! I want to know the moment the Science Ninjas arrive in the base!" Behind her, a man laughed. Gel Sadra spun, glaring at her men, but none of them were producing the sound-- their jaws were dropped in an expression of fear. Gel Sadra had never been briefed on laughing men. She pulled a gun, searching around the room for the sound as a second voice joined in from the other side of the room. "Who's there?" she screamed. "It's already too late to see us arrive," the first voice said. A bird-shaped shadow fell on the wall, coming out from a side passage. "We are the white shadows that slip in unseen--" The second voice resolved itself into a shadow as well. "Science Ninja Team--" "Gatchaman!" The first shadow became the Eagle, as he and the Condor both came out of their hiding places. "*Shoot them*!" Gel Sadra shrieked. The men hastily moved to oblige, but none of their bullets found targets. The two men moved through the Galactors like lightning, delivering blows. Gel Sadra *saw* suddenly, like a double image superimposed over the scene, her men all unconscious, incapacitated or dead, and the two Science Ninjas grabbing her. She choked on a wail of terror and ran mindlessly for her escape hatch. Sosai had drilled her and drilled her on the need for escape hatches. For the first time, she understood why. Jay's fighting style was faster and cleaner than Joe's had been, Ken noticed, but no less effective; instead of standing there slugging Galactors, he was using his cyborg speed and strength to take each one down with a single punch. Aside from the initial freeze he'd done back in the corridor, he seemed to be fully into it. Still, Ken kept an eye on him as he chopped through his own attackers-- and thus had no attention to spare for Gel Sadra. Jay, on the other hand, was not watching Ken, so he saw it when Gel Sadra ran. "Ken! Gel Sadra's getting away!" Ken spun to look. One of the Galactors attacking him thought to use that moment of distraction, and aimed a punch at Ken's stomach. Without even really looking, Ken blocked the punch and flipped the man, breaking the Galactor's wrist. "Damn! Can you get after her?" "I can try." Jay leapt free of the Galactors he was beating up, grabbed a ceiling fixture, and swung himself, so when he landed it was near Gel Sadra. He charged at her-- but Gel Sadra sidestepped *before* he reached her and dove through a revolving door in the wall. Jay tried to follow, and smacked into the wall. Apparently, the revolving door didn't exist for him. He turned, seeing that Ken had polished off the last of the Galactors. "Ken! We lost her." "Damn. Can't be helped. Let's get out of here." He contacted the others. "Jun, you ready to leave?" "Just about. There. Ten-minute timer." "Right. Jinpei! Ryu! We're leaving!" Once aboard the New God Phoenix, with the Easton Island base behind them, Ken told Jay, "You did pretty good back there. Watch that freezing up, though." "It won't happen again," Jay said. "Ken, I couldn't find their headquarters in the databanks. I'm sorry," Jun said. "That's all right. We have ten more bases Kyla's told us about. Do we feel up to taking out another?" "Yeah!" Jinpei shouted gleefully. Ryu grinned. "Do I ever!" Ken glanced at Jay, who was also grinned. Taking that as assent from him, Ken said, "All right then! Jun, look up the closest of the bases and feed the information to Ryu. We may have lost Gel Sadra, but Galactor's going to *hurt* before this day's over." Six days later, they had brought down five bases, none of which were terribly important ones. That was about to change, according to Dr. Nambu. He summoned them in and told Kyla, "Tell them what you told me." "Galactor relies on its scientists," Kyla said. "At least they did in my time. Sosai *can* design new mecha, but he usually doesn't, and even when he did we always consulted with the scientists. Now, Galactor Science Institute is a hierarchal network that controls all of Galactor's scientific operations. Its current leader is Dr. Selina Marriochio, the only woman besides Gel Sadra to hold power in Galactor now." She nodded at Nambu, who'd made a slide of a drawing Kyla had done of Selina. Marriochio was a severe-looking woman in her late 20's or early 30's with long black hair and white-- really white, not just pinkish-- skin. "The color isn't a mistake; she wears thick face paint. Selina was personally loyal to me, not Galactor; if you can capture her, I can persuade us to come over to our side. Whether you capture her or not, if you take out *her* headquarters, you'll cripple Galactor's scientific operations." The picture was very well done. "I never knew you could draw that well," Jun said. "It never came up. Now I've got a map, from memory, of the layout of GSI headquarters. It could have inaccuracies-- I haven't been there in close to three years-- but it'll do the job." She took the map and unrolled it on Nambu's desk. "Here are the key points..." Officially the base buried under the Mediterrean coast of Italy was simply called Galactor Science Institute Headquarters. Unofficially, it was known as the Temple of Science, a usage so widespread that even its young founder and captain, the cold and rigid Dr. Selina Marriochio, had taken to using it. Unlike most other Galactor bases, the Temple had not fallen to pieces in the years between Berg Katse's death and Gel Sadra's takeover of Galactor. Marriochio had been very young, barely 24, when Katse had died, and had not been Executive Scientist of Galactor for long at all. But she had unofficially been running Galactor Science Institute as Dr. Finger's second-in-command for a year before that, and she knew exactly what she wanted. In the two years of the interregnum, GSI had actually expanded, seeking scientific knowledge for its own sake. Then Gel Sadra had taken over Galactor, and offered GSI a chance to come back to the fold. Selina had taken it. Perhaps that had been a mistake. Outside, the day had dawned hot and brassy, but inside the air-conditioned coolness of the Temple, Selina Marriochio hardly noticed. She was up before dawn as was her usual routine, and having taken her first shower of the day and applied her white facepaint, she was now sitting at her terminal playing with money. It *had* been a mistake to come back to Galactor; that she was now certain of. Gel Sadra was not only not Katse-sama, she was a bona-fide idiot. Lately she was moaning because the Science Ninja Team had destroyed five of her bases in the course of the week, including the one on Easton Island she'd prepared as a trap for them. Obviously, the agent she'd sent to lure the Ninja Team in had not only been caught, but had babbled as well. Stupid. An agent picked by Katse-sama would *never* have talked. Selina smiled a thin, superior little half-smile as she juggled funds. It might be necessary to leave Galactor fairly shortly. The Temple's location was unknown to Gel Sadra-- she had met with Marriochio at a different base, and had no idea where Marriochio had headquartered her science operations. Nobody in Galactor knew anymore, except those that lived here, and of course Sosai. *This* base was safe from such disclosure. And if the Science Ninja Team brought the roof crashing down on Gel Sadra's head, Marriochio could survive quite nicely, provided she had a healthy chunk of Galactor's science budget in her private accounts. That was how she'd outlasted Berg Katse's death, and that was how she'd outlast Gel Sadra's. She felt a sort of distant melancholy at the thought of leaving Galactor. It had been her refuge, the first and only place she'd felt at home. But it wasn't really the same, not after Katse-sama's death... A quiet sorrow welled within her as she remembered. Such a useless way to die. If she'd been summoned in time, if the base hadn't been destroyed, if ISO hadn't taken the body, she could have saved him. Even when clinically dead, a Gemini Linkage, such as Katse and she herself were, could be brought back to life-- she had gauged that she could have saved him up to 3 or 4 days after his death. But ISO had apparently dragged the body off, no doubt for study purposes, and she had been left desolate. Her loyalty had been to *him*, not to Galactor, and when he died and Galactor fell into chaos, she'd quietly taken her people and retreated to her secret bases. Suddenly her terminal went dead. Selina flicked it on and off several times. Nothing. Something must have shut down the mainframes-- the terminal was still on, it just wasn't displaying anything. She went to the phone to call the data center, but the phone was dead, too. Quickly she got up and ran out of her room. Something was going on, and if the computers and the phones were dead, what would be next? There was an explosion deep under her feet, and Selina immediately knew that the flammable chemicals storage area had gone up. A siren split the air. She had to get down there and make sure the fire was being dealt with. If it spread... Most of the Temple was underground. Evacuation routes were posted everywhere, but she was beginning to suspect that *somebody* might arrange to block them off. This had to be sabotage, but was it internal? Or did *they* do it? And if it was *them*, how did they find out where the Temple was? "Dr. Marriochio!" A technician was running toward her desperately. "Thank God you're all right!" "What's being done about the fire down there?" "We've sealed it off. No other choice. Nobody's answering the emergency com down there, a team who went down to look at it didn't report back, and considering what we found in the computer room--" "What?" "A bunch of dead bodies with feathers in their throats." "Santa Maria, Madre di Dio," Selina breathed. "All right, we're under attack." She went to the nearest emergency com and hit override. "This is Selina Marriochio. We are under attack by the Science Ninja Team. All personnel are to evacuate. Repeat, all personnel to evacuate, carrying as much data as possible. Technicians are to carry weapons and defend scientists against possible attacks." The earsplitting shriek of the hydrogen leak alarm went off. "Cut off that leak, or we'll be in the middle of a firestorm!" Selina screamed. She turned and ran down two flights of stairs, coming out in a suite of rooms. The children were huddled in their bedrooms, except for Connell, whom Meghara had said had gone to fight the Science Ninja Team. Selina was furious, but there was no way to catch up with him. There were three children, all mutants created by her or her predecessor, Vail Djannis-- Meghara, Mantissa, and Garain, ages 9, 7, and 3, respectively. "Come on," she said. "We're evacuating!" Selina carried Garain. Meghara, a shapechanger, managed to keep Selina's pace, but Mantissa kept falling behind. They were close to one of the exits when Garain shouted, "There a bomb!" Selina turned and threw him away from the wall. He might break a limb when he hit, but he had to be as far from the bomb as possible. "Get away from the wall!" she screamed. The two young children hastily backpedaled, and Selina started after them-- The last thing she saw before the wall landed on her was the three children, lighter than she was and further away, being hurled by the shockwave of the blast into the far wall. There was a time of darkness, and then of pain, and when she was next conscious she was on fire. No, not on fire-- it was an internal burning, fever and what she called the Little Death. She couldn't open her eyes-- something sticky was glueing her lids together, and she couldn't move her hands to rub it away. In fact, she could neither move nor feel her arms and legs. Her head moved with no resistance from outside her body, but ached so terribly when she moved it that she nearly passed out. It seemed that she was pinned under the wall, in a position that didn't crush her lungs and left her head free in an air pocket. She was fortunate, then. Or perhaps not. A disbelieving male voice, somewhere else. "*Children*? Kyla never told us there were children here!" "Maybe she didn't know." Another male voice. "This little boy's got a few broken ribs, but his breathing's okay." A boy's voice. "This is weird. This boy was on top of this little black girl, so he should've taken the force of the blast. But he's not even scratched. She's got a few bruises, but she's otherwise fine too." So Meghara had protected Mantissa with his body, and because he regenerated, he was left unhurt. Garain, Mantissa, Meghara-- they were all alive. Selina sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the God she didn't believe in. The second male voice sighed. "Kyla's gonna be glad to hear that. She'd hate it if she got kids killed." "Never mind her, *I'm* glad they're all right," the first voice said. "The Science Ninja Team aren't child-killers. On the other hand, kids have no business being in a Galactor base. Has anyone seen Marriochio yet?" "No sign," the second voice said. "Damn. The Doctor wanted her alive!" "What for?" the boy asked. It was the second voice that answered. "Don't you remember what Kyla said? She thinks she could persuade Marriochio over to our side. Seems Marriochio used to be loyal to her personally, not Galactor. Now that she's switched sides, she figures she can get Marriochio to do it too." "Well, she's not likely to want to now that we've firebombed her base," the boy said. "I don't think it'll work, Joe n'aniki." "Well, it certainly *won't* work if we can't *find* the woman," the first man said. They couldn't be saying what Selina thought they were saying. Could they? Was she hallucinating in the throes of the Change, the Little Death? She'd thought they were talking about someone who'd told them about the Temple of Science, who Selina had been personally loyal to, and there was only one person like that. And *he* was dead. Or was he? What they were saying-- could Katse-sama be alive after all, rescued and brainwashed by ISO? She heard their footsteps leave. Tears welled in her eyes, unsticking her lids. She opened them, but there was too much dust in the air, so she quickly squeezed them shut again. She knew how easy it would be to brainwash a Gemini Linkage. If he'd lived, ISO could easily have turned him against Galactor. He'd been a victim. There was no reason she should feel betrayed, no reason... Gel Sadra was mortified. First the lovely trap she'd set up on Easton Island had been demolished by the Science Ninja Team, and she'd only gotten away because she saw it a few minutes before it happened. Then, before the week was over, 8 bases had been destroyed, all of them holdovers from the old days. To tell the truth, she wasn't *too* disappointed, not in herself-- all the bases Berg Katse had designed were *ugly*, and it was sort of good riddance. But Sosai was very angry, and so she had to be upset about it. And also, Sosai was mad about the base that bitch Selina had been running, that got blown up. Gel Sadra didn't care-- she didn't like Selina. She'd just as soon have left her to die in the wreckage instead of digging her out. Anyway, she was paralyzed now, and what good could she do anyone *that* way? But Sosai had said to save her, so they did. * Anyway*, as if *that* hadn't been enough, in two months 3 of her other plans had been demolished before they could begin. Her Black Knights plan, to man out the ranks by breaking into prisons, should've been foolproof. But the Science Ninja Team were already waiting at the prison, and it turned out all the prisoners had been moved somewhere else. Then the Ninja Team blew up the prison and killed 80% of her Black Knights. That was no fair. Then Sosai got an idea from some of the bases blowing up, and made an earthquake device. They set up an ambush for the Science Ninja Team in New Jork, but the Ninja Team never even *went* to New Jork. Instead, they found the device underground and blew it up. There were two plans after that that sort of worked-- at least they didn't fail before they began, though the Science Ninjas did defeat them in the end. So then Gel Sadra had a great idea of her own. She built a giant mecha as a trap for the New God Phoenix, and when it got to the North Pole, it would bury the Science Ninja Team forever. But one of the men on the supervising crew spilled the location to someone and then shot himself. His wife and son disappeared. And then the Science Ninja Team destroyed the base with the mecha still in it, and Gel Sadra had to go report to Sosai. She was almost weeping when she finished her report. "Nothing's going right, but it's not my fault!" she sobbed. "Somebody's sabotaging us, Sosai! I'm sure of it-- every time we make a move, the Science Ninja Team know it in advance!" She expected Sosai to yell at her, as he always did. Instead, he spoke thoughtfully. "Not entirely true... they didn't predict the Reddar Operation, nor our venture onto the Moon. As for everything else, I've analyzed the data, and I believe you're right. Somebody has betrayed us." "But who? Do you know who, Sosai?" "Not yet. Marriochio, however, has proposed an interesting theory." "Oh, *her*!" Gel Sadra said contemptuously. "She can't do anything!" "She can keep a base's location a secret from you and our Intelligence Department, a feat in itself." "Well, she didn't keep it secret *enough*, did she?" "No, she didn't. When I first interrogated her as to the cause, she claimed she had heard a member of the Science Ninja Team say that Berg Katse was alive and brainwashed by ISO. I asked her about this later, and she'd forgotten it in the trauma of the Change. At first I dismissed it as a hallucination of delirium. But now that I have analyzed our failures, it occurs to me that Berg Katse could well be responsible for all of them." "How, Sosai?" "Firstly, Johann Rheinmann was well-known to Katse. He could have tricked Rheinmann into exposing himself. Secondly, *all* the bases that were destroyed were built in Katse's time, except for the most recent one today. Thirdly, the man who apparently sold Galactor out and killed himself was recruited by Katse with a threat to his wife and son. If ISO took those two into protective custody, he would be safe to betray Galactor, and then kill himself to avoid torture. Katse would have known the man's weak point. "The earthquake device was a plan I had discussed with Katse in years past. And it would have been obvious to Katse that we needed to strike at a prison to man out our ranks. Once knowing that, ISO Intelligence could have determined *which* prison without much difficulty." "But Sosai, if it's Berg Katse-- well, he *failed* all the time. Sooner or later, he'll screw up, right?" "Unfortunately, if he's working for Nambu, he doesn't need to come up with any plans of his own-- Nambu will do that. All he needs to do is provide the information. This is what we'll do, Gel Sadra. We'll stop using all the old bases Katse knew about. We'll change the codes, and we'll eliminate anyone Katse might be able to turn against us. If that makes a great deal of difference, we'll know it's Katse. And if it *is* Katse, we'll hunt him down--" "And kill him?" Gel Sadra asked eagerly. "And recapture him. I might be able to deprogram him; if not, yes, I will let you kill him." Gel Sadra smiled. She was going to come up with a special, horrible death device, just in case. If Berg Katse had betrayed Sosai, oh was he going to suffer. She'd make sure of that.