Parallel Universe 004 - An alternate Gatchaman II universe by Cal
Based on the works of Alara Rogers, Ennien Ashbrook and Kathleen Coventry
All Gatchaman characters copyright Tatsunoko Productions
Brace Hoffman borrowed from Ennien Ashbrook



                     Man the mighty aviator


"My name is Ken Washio. I am also known as Great Eagle Ken, leader
of the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. I have lost both my parents to
Galactor, and am their most feared enemy.
   Of all the Science Ninjas, I am most at home in the sky. My
father was a famous fighter pilot, unequalled in skill. As for
myself, I am the ISO's test pilot and fly the Eagle Sharp, one of
the most well-designed fighter planes in history.
   My guardian and best friend is Doctor Nambu, who took me into
his care and made me what I am today. My worst enemy is... *was*...
Berg Katze, who killed my father, tried to kill my teammate Joe
Asakura and almost managed to destroy our beautiful Earth. Pitiful
creature that he is, he is better off dead.
   But his death, it seems, is not the end of Galactor. The ugly
monster has reared its head once again, and we must all unite our
forces to overcome it. Galactor, will you never die?"

Ken was strolling through a busy part of town on a Saturday
afternoon in civvies, hands in pockets. He had nothing in
particular to do, having finished the shopping and such
housecleaning as he was capable of, and was happily anticipating
the test run of the new ISO fighter plane prototype, the Skyhawk.
It was still in construction stage, but he had seen the plans and
had been impressed. Not much bigger than the old G-1, it could hold
two pilots, had mobile laser guns and could dive under radar fields
with ease. Its small, sleek shape allowed it to rise from a very
short runway, although a longer runway would be necessary for it to
land. It had a manoeuverability similar to that of the Eagle Sharp
and the planes of the Red Impulse squad, but was better armoured
and contained more safety restraints. This, at least, he had
gathered from the plans. He had yet to see the thing finished.
   Contentedly engaged in this train of thought, he walked without
seeing, and almost bumped into a woman carrying a baby and a heavy
shopping bag. Hastily apologizing, he looked around to see where he
was. Somewhere in the Shinjuku area, that was certain. The streets
were crowded and lined with high, multicoloured shop facades. Five
or so men in business suits hurriedly walked past him, another
mother-and-housewife with a shopping bag was dragging along a
wailing child and a tallish person with an armful of books was
standing at the corner of the street, near the kerb. He was not
entirely familiar with this part of the city. To find his way back
to his house, he should, he thought, head back to the crossing he
had passed ten minutes ago, then bear right towards the shopping
centre, then... It occurred to him that the tallish person with the
books was looking at him, and had been looking at him for some
time. In ascertaining this, he made a glancing eye contact, and the
person smiled. There was something familiar about her, although he
couldn't quite place it.
   It was no one he knew, he thought. Taking a closer look at her,
he found that she was quite a mannequin; tall, slim and angular,
with long light hair and a pale skin untypical of the Japanese. Her
face was narrow and triangular, its features cast in a cruel and
sinister expression that was in no way softened by the smile
playing around the lips. The eyes were a cold and narrow grey-blue,
twinkling with unholy glee.
   "Guess who, Gatchaman."
   "Berg Katze!!!"
   He rushed for her throat, but she easily brought him up short
with a knee in his solar plexus. Winded, he staggered backwards.
She didn't follow up her move, staying instead where she was and
looking at him with a smile of amusement while he fought to regain
his breath.
   "If you're going to fight, at least give me fair warning so I
can put this lot down. They're public property, you know. I
wouldn't want them to get damaged."
   "Damn you, Katze..."
   "And do try not to use that name in public, it's impolitic. If
you must call me names, call me Hunt."
   "What???"
   Shifting the books to one arm to free a hand, she opened the bag
that was hanging on a strap over her shoulder and fished out a
card. She presented it to Ken. It was an ID card for a certain ISO
research centre bearing the name J. Hunt, an employee number, date
of birth and a small photograph of what must have been the woman
Galactor captain on one of her more oblivious days. Ken goggled.
   "What do you think? Not too bad, eh? Although on this one I look
as if I've just been hit over the head with a heavy object. But
I've seen worse."
   "What is the meaning of this?" Ken demanded.
   "The meaning is this, that I am now employed by ISO and you are
not to put a single dent in me if you don't want to get in trouble
with your superiors." She was grinning all over her face. It made
her look distinctly shark-like.
   "And you expect me to believe that??"
   "Would I lie to you?" She held the card out to him. "Here, keep
it if you like. I've got a spare." He glowered furiously. "As you
like." She tucked it back in her bag, closed the flap, and shifted
the weight of the books to both arms again. Looking at the colour
bars on the covers, he could tell they were library books. The
uppermost book was something on advanced cybernetics.
   "What are you doing here?" he thundered, still shocked at the
unexpected meeting. She smiled mischievously.
   "Infiltrating ISO labs! which is why I am currently chatting to
you. No, actually, I'm waiting for someone to give me a ride home.
My car's being serviced at the moment, and I don't exactly live at
walking distance."
   "You *live* here?"
   "Sure, want to see my house? Angel's picking me up in a few
minutes, he'll take you along if you want to come."
   Ken took a second or two to digest this. He swallowed. "You're
actually working for ISO?"
   "Uh-uh." She nodded. "Check it out with Nambu if you don't
believe me. Anyway, you'll probably be invited to his office any
day now, I should think."
   "But... why??"
   She shrugged gaily. "A girl's gotta make a living. And with my
qualifications I don't exactly have work as a waitress, if you know
what I mean."
   "And what about Galactor?"
   "Chucked me out. So sod them."
   Ken shook his head. This was *not* the Berg Katze of his memory.
Either he was hallucinating, or s/he had an identical twin, or
someone *had* indeed hit hir over the head with a heavy object.
   "But... You'd fight against your own organization?"
   "Me, I don't fight against anything. I let brave heroes like you
do the fighting." A car drew up, and its owner honked. "That's
Angel. Okay, you coming?"
   A pretty-looking, but also very un-Japanese youth stuck his head
out through the window and called to her to get in.
   "Hurry up! Is your friend coming along?"
   "Not exactly a friend, but..."
   The pretty head, catching sight of the number on Ken's T-shirt,
whistled appreciatively. "So this is the famous Joe?"
   "No, Joe's number two. This is Ken, Great Eagle, very confused."
   "Hi Ken. Can I give you a ride?" Katze had already opened a door
to dump her books. Ken swallowed again. He had been expecting a day
of leisure. But if the enemy had appeared again in this unlikely
and unexpected quarter, he felt he was obliged to go along and
investigate.
   "Uhh, um, that is..."
   Katze took him by the arm and dragged him round to the other
side of the car, opened the door and bundled him in
unceremoniously. Then she sat down in the seat next to the driver
and buckled her seat belt. Ken had for company a pile of books and
a short stumpy woman of about thirty who introduced herself as
Lenore.
   "So, you're Ken Washio?" the youth said, pulling away from the
kerb and re-entering the stream of traffic. "Pleased ta meetcha.
Heard a lot about you. My name's Kelly O'Shaughnessy alias the
Bloody-Minded Irishman, but most people call me Angel."
   "Are you a Galactor?"
   "Me? No way, man. No way."
   Katze was leaning over the back of her seat talking across to
the stumpy woman about a motherboard she was planning to replace.
"But you don't really need 64 Mb RAM." "Yup I do." "That's
ridiculous, that's ten times as much as the operating system will
handle." Katze grinned. "Not *my* operating system!"
   "And who are you?" Lenore asked, turning to Ken. She had, he
noted, black eyes, a very round face and a milk chocolate
complexion. She, too, was un-Japanese, although less blatantly
Caucasian than the other two.
   "That there's the great Gatchaman!" Angel announced proudly.
"Shadow of justice... Sometimes five... But he seems to have lost
the other four just now..." Katze whacked him.
   "Big oops! Should I be pushing an eject button?" Lenore asked.
Katze snickered. "Nah, he's not a hostile life-form." "Are you
sure?" "Well, come to think of it..."
   "Take no notice," Angel confided to Ken. "They're always like
that."
   "As if you're any better!" the two women cried out in unison.
   "Quiet or we all end up in a ditch!" the driver ordered. Katze
turned a very stern look on Lenore and emphatically said: "Sshhhh!"
They both broke up. Angel grinned widely as he swung the car onto
the Expressway No. 5. Ken decided he was hallucinating. Katze, he
remembered, had leapt into a lava pit prior to the Earth's planned
destruction. Death-resistant though the mutant was, that should
surely have finished hir off.
   "How did you survive, anyway?" he demanded.
   "Who, me?" both women asked at the same time.
   "I think he means the mutant," Angel said pointedly. Despite his
supposed ethnic origin, he had a strong American accent.
   "Me? Uh, oh, well..."
   "You have exactly *five* minutes to come up with a good excuse,"
Lenore said with great severity. The emphatic intonation suggested
she was mimicking something, as did Katze's exaggeratedly ingenuous
expression. Ken was surprised. He had never thought of the mutant
as having an expression. Most of the time hir face had been masked,
and when it hadn't, its inhumanly bland expression was in itself a
mask.
   "Don't talk to your Captain like that, Number 645! Or I'll have
you demoted to Number 646!" Lenore mocked consternation and
despair. A Galactor? Or someone acquainted with Galactor?
   "You haven't answered the question," Ken said. "How did you
survive?"
   "He's a stickler for the truth, isn't he?" Lenore commented.
   "Divine intervention," Katze smiled sweetly.
   "Is the truth really out there?" Angel intoned solemnly, causing
the women to howl and shriek. Ken supposed it must be a joke, but
he didn't get it. "Aliens ate my 'vette," Katze gasped, and doubled
up again. "No not really, I'm having it overhauled."
   "Uh-oh..." the stumpy woman said. Ken craned his neck to see
where they were. They had left the city, and were now in a
relatively open area.
   "What's *that* supposed to mean?"
   "What high-rise building did you topple this time?"
   "You confer too much honour on me," Katze rejoined, wiping tears
from her eyes. The short woman was doing likewise. "No, I didn't
crash into any kind of building, in fact I didn't even leave a
scratch on that tree that always jumps out into the middle of the
road each time I come home after midnight pissed totally out of my
mind... It's just routine servicing. I'm a very cautious driver,
you know."
   This time Angel doubled up too, letting out a blaring sound of
laughter and amazement. The car did a little skip. "Would you run
that past me again please? Since when have you been a cautious
driver?"
   "Watch the fucking road! You're gonna get us killed!!"
   "Sharkey, you are *not* a cautious driver. Tell him, Len."
   "Hunt, you are *not* a cautious driver," Lenore lectured Katze.
"You are a hazard on the road. You are the nemesis of unsuspecting
pedestrians. You are a terror on the freeway, and usually off it,
too. You are capable of causing a massive traffic accident by
merely backing out of a driveway. Luigi Sakamoto in a bad mood with
a hangover and a race to win is a more cautious driver than you
are." Katze pouted and turned her back to Lenore, while the driver
hung over the wheel, giggling helplessly. Ken's head was spinning.
Luigi Sakamoto, the antisocial racer, he knew that one. Joe had
gone on about it often enough. But the other references were
obscure to him, and the nicknames they all seemed to be giving each
other... "I'm hallucinating," he reassured himself.
   "Last stop Mutant's End," the driver announced, pulling up
before a concrete fence with a metal gate in an otherwise idyllic
surrounding. Creepers had been led up against the side of the
fence, but weren't covering it yet. "Everybody out, please. This
car will self-destruct in exactly five seconds." More howls from
Lenore and Katze. The car shook.
   Lenore handed the pile of books to Katze when she opened the
door for her, then scrambled out. Angel opened the door to Ken on
the other side, although he had to walk around the car to do it.
Katze had made the same detour in the opposite direction. They
exchanged looks over the roof of the car, then fell against it face
down, laughing hysterically.
   "No, that wasn't very logical," Lenore agreed. "How about
letting us in?"
   Through the fence Ken could see a flagstone path leading to a
front door, paired with a driveway leading to what must be a garage
on the right. Katze pulled a remote control out of her bag and
pushed a few buttons, and the gate slipped smoothly into the
concrete until it was completely hidden. Following her, the small
group made its way to the front door and trooped in. Feet were
wiped, coats were hung up, the books were deposited on top of the
hat rack and they were led to a light and comfortably spacious
living room giving onto the garden behind the house. Like a sprite
on the sofa sat a very slender and delicate girl with whitish hair
and unbelievably large silvery-grey eyes.
   Katze's mouth dropped open, as did Angel's. Lenore merely
stared. Ken stared too, but he had been staring practically
throughout the drive.
   "How did you get in here?"
   "I let myself in with a brick," the pale apparition said
modestly. "No, actually, I hypnotized the door. Angel, shut your
trap, I can see your epiglottis. That's better. Well, how about
offering me a drink?"
   Katze snapped into action. "Coffee, everyone?" "Yes please."
"Not for me unless you've got decaf." "Mate for you, Lenny?" "If
it's not too much bother..." "I'll take orange juice." "Well, you
know where it is, help yourself." The round of negotiation ended
with Katze and the silvery apparition going off to the kitchen and
Ken being left with Angel and Lenore.
   "Well, sit," Lenore urged him, indicating the sofa that the
apparition had just left. Angel had already dropped himself into a
chair. "Not a good idea," he commented from his secure position.
"Put him there, and he'll be sitting between Win and Sharkey.
Between the two of them, I don't think there'll be much left of
him."
   While the two strangers chatted together and chinking sounds
came from the kitchen, Ken strolled around the room. It was square
and carpeted wall-to-wall with brindled grey. Lamps hung in two
places: over the corner where they now sat, and over a table to his
left which was probably used for eating. A newspaper and some bits
of machinery had been hastily dumped on it, but that was the only
note of disorder in this otherwise perfectly ordered room. Discreet
black bookcases held books in different languages, a large painting
depicting the usual scenic view hung on one wall and a smaller
painting occupied a place near the table. He walked up to it to
inspect it. It was quite an accurate portrait of the woman captain
in a long raincoat armed with an extremely heavy machine gun, her
face empty and drugged-looking, painted from such a perspective
that she seemed to be looking over the viewer's head. The picture
was cut off somewhere at the knees, and under that the caption ran:
"BEWARE OF THE MUTANT (never mind the dog)"
   "I did that one," the spritely apparition said. She had
approached him unheard, and now stood next to him, also admiring
the picture. He jumped. She laughed. She had a tinkling laugh and
a crystal-clear voice that struck him as not quite human. Her face
was oval and neither ugly nor particularly beautiful, but he
couldn't get over the eyes. She laughed again and tugged at his
sleeve. "Coffee's ready."

Ken sat on the edge of his chair and very cautiously brought the
cup to his lips as Lenore sucked her tea (or whatever it might be)
up through a straw and the sprite-like girl chatted with Katze on
the sofa in a strange staccato language, taking the occasional sip
from her glass. "Go ahead," Katze encouraged him, seeing his
hesitation. "There's no poison in it this time."
   "At least if you disregard the caffeine," the mystery girl
added. Katze started making little choking noises. The girl added
a few phrases in the other language which had to be very funny,
because Katze was obliged to put down her cup for fear of spilling.
She was shaking and holding her sides, completely silent but for a
convulsive gasping and wheezing. Angel shook his head. "Gee, you
sure are in a good mood today. Have you been pigging out on Prozac
again, you bad mutant?"
   Although Ken didn't understand what this was supposed to mean,
it was obviously very funny too, for Lenore blew a rush of bubbles
down her straw, while the whitish girl emitted a series of high-
pitched laughs that plucked at his ears. Sitting upright and
straightening her clothes, Katze put on a serious wide-eyed little-
girl look and said in a voice as if she had a clothespin on her
nose: "I have a little hormone problem..."
   Lenore let go of the straw altogether and yelled with laughter,
backed up by Angel and the sprite girl. As the latter bent double
on the sofa, he couldn't help noticing that there was something
wrong with her back. Seen from the side, she was humped like
Quasimodo.
   Ken drank his coffee while jokes ran around the room, and
listened, astounded. He had never heard Katze speak anything but
Japanese, and often fairly formal Japanese at that, not counting
the swearing. He had also never heard the mutant laugh in any but
a very gloating and artificial way. Angel joined in their
discussion, and they talked about horses; about breeding, and
congenital defects, and the best way to break a horse to harness.
Angel discussed firearms with Lenore and Katze, and Katze conversed
on computers with the silvery girl. Then the girl walked over and
dropped herself on Angel's lap, turning to Katze to say:
   "So how's the Skyhawk project coming along?"
   If Ken's ears had been pointed and dog-like, they would have
risen at this moment. "I can't talk about that," Katze protested.
"That's ISO stuff. Top secret, very hush-hush. If you want to know
anything about it, you have to go to the Ministry of Defence, hand
in a request for information in triplicate with your passport and
bank account number, bribe the jerk at the counter to process it
and then wait for six years for an interview."
   "Which is why I'm asking you."
   "My mouth is sealed."
   "Ah, but we haff ways of making you talk."
   "No, no, seriously, I shouldn't say a thing. In fact, you're not
even supposed to know about it."
   "The pale warriors who fly by night know *everything*," the girl
said with mock solemnity. "But, okay, be that way, we won't bug
you. Though why the ISO should worry about *us* finding out is
beyond me. We like to skyhawk without millions of dollars worth of
hardware under our butts. Don't we Angel." Angel drew up his nose,
and snorted.
   "What do you know about the Skyhawk?" Ken wanted to know.
   "What do *you* know about the Skyhawk?" Katze inquired, raising
one eyebrow.
   "He's obviously going to be testing it," the girl said. She was
uncomfortably keen of understanding. Either that, or the mutant had
filled her in. Ken hoped for the latter.
   "How so?" asked Lenore.
   "Well, he's ISO's tester pilot."
   "Oh?"
   "True," Angel joined in. "You told us. His dad was the leader of
that Red Impulse team, right?"
   "Plus fighter pilot in World War III. Plus ISO spy. Plus a lot
of things." Yes, she'd probably been informed by Katze. But she
spoke with complete authority.
   "Ahem..." It was Katze who had spoken. "The subject of your
discussion is currently present in this room... He might not *like*
being discussed in the third person..."
   "You're right," the girl nodded. "I'm not being very polite. Oh
Great Eagle, will you forgive me?"
   "Who are you, anyway?" Ken blurted out.
   "Call me Win," she said sweetly, "as in Windoze." She prolonged
the vowel in the last syllable, rounding her lips as if blowing a
kiss. Katze hiccuped. "Call me Lynx... As in the stupidest
operating system since OS/Warp..."
   "Or Unix," Angel joined in. "The most user-friendly product
since Charles Babbitt's magical abacus..." The whole circle was
laughing again. "Bitcom! Guaranteed to shred your file to bits!"
"Pine! The editor that *really* hurts!" "Mime! You will *never*
find out what your auntie wrote to you!"
   "Didn't Mime have to be decoded in thirty-four steps?" the girl
called Win asked, her eyes shining with moisture. "If I recall
correctly... Of course, that was in the last century..."
   "We have perfected the science of cybernetics since then," Katze
declared, "and found a way to produce pollution-free energy, yet
Mime *still* has to be decoded in thirty-four steps." "Progress!"
Angel bellowed out through the ensuing laughter.
   Ken fidgeted. He wanted to leave, and he wasn't going to get
much more information out of this lot. There was no dangerous
Galactor activity going on as far as he could see, although there
was still the puzzle of Katze's survival to solve.
   "The Eagle wants to leave," Win announced, without looking at
him. "The Eagle wants to take flight, and return to his eyrie."
   Katze turned her attention to him. "If you want to leave, go
ahead, I won't keep you here. Angel, would you be so kind...?"
Angel rose, flicking Win off his lap.
   "No, thanks," Ken said. "I think I'll walk."
   "He means fly," Win said to Lenore. "I know that," Lenore
returned.
   "We should be leaving too," Angel said. "Stay for dinner if you
like," Katze offered. "We'd love to," Win interjected on a
beautifully pure note, "but we know your cooking ranks all the way
up there with Jun's." Katze whacked her. "Ten out of ten for
honesty," Angel remarked, "but minus several million points for
tact." Laughter.
   "I really have to go home," Lenore said. "See ya, cap." The two
women embraced. "Just kidding, Sharkey," Win said to Katze. "Far be
it from me to criticize your cuisine. Good luck, eh?"
   Flying away in Birdstyle, the last thing Ken saw was Katze
hugging Angel, as the other two filed to his car.

Ken was quite content to believe that the whole thing had been a
hallucination, until Nambu summoned him and the team to his private
office for a briefing and an explanation. He was stunned. Joe
didn't seem to be too rattled, and Jinpei merely stared at ISO's
new asset with undisguised curiosity, but Jun looked aghast and Ryu
was pale. Katze didn't seem too pleased at being present, either,
and was relieved when Nambu ordered Joe to take hir away.
   "I don't understand," Ken said despairingly. "How can you - how
can ISO allow this?" Jun nodded in support.
   "To tell the truth, it was neither my nor ISO's doing," Nambu
enlightened them. "It seems he has somehow contacted a number of
high-ranking officials in the UN, and submitted a request for
amnesty. It was granted under certain, er, conditions, on the
ground that he would be an invaluable ally in the fight against
Galactor, especially in view of his former position in the
organization. Not to mention the additional factor of his
scientific interest, both as scientist and as subject. He has
promised his cooperation in any research into his, ahem, physical
structure, insofar as it doesn't endanger his present position."
   "I thought he was just going to be a drudge in the engineering
department," Ken countered.
   "Of course, we won't entrust him with anything vital until we
can be sure he's reliable."
   "And if he isn't?" Jinpei asked. "Do we sue his butt off?"
   "No," Nambu said, adjusting his glasses. "We pronounce a death
sentence, and open the hunt. Which, by the way, will be your
responsibility."
   "So," Ryu ascertained, "If he turns against ISO, we kill him."
   "Exactly."
   Ken wasn't satisfied. "You say he hasn't been entrusted with
anything vital. But what about his envolvement with the Skyhawk
project?"
   "The Skyhawk project?" Jun and Jinpei cried out. They turned
horrified faces on Nambu. He made a soothing gesture to calm them.
   "Katze's only assignment is to check the plans for errors; he's
proved to be quite a talent at spotting construction errors.
Lately, of course, he's submitted a few suggestions, which have
been carefully screened for catches, but which so far have only
proven useful. Anyway, it's not his only job. He's involved in the
initial stage of testing generally, any new plans are submitted to
him first."
   "So he has the power to pass any faulty or altered designs onto
the construction department?" Ken cried out.
   "He works under supervision. Anyway, he knows what will happen
if he attempts foul play. It seems our enemy is now chiefly
concerned with leading as quiet a life as possible; he was in
hiding at the time of the request, and it may be that he defected
from Galactor. Whatever the circumstances that brought him here,
the UN's orders are that we tolerate his presence, and we must let
the UN's orders take precedence over our own emotions. Let us hope
he will wreak less havoc as a woman." Ryu nodded in agreement, as
did Jun and Jinpei.
   Ken groaned. "And I thought we'd finally got rid of him."
   "We have gained a friend, and an enemy," Nambu philosophized.
"Maybe the enemy will prove a friend to us in the long run."
   "That's true," Jinpei remarked. "At least we got Joe back,
aniki."
   "Yes, but what about my father?"
   "Nothing will ever bring your father back, Ken. He died to save
the Earth. Accept his death, and face your duty as a Science Ninja.
Our job is to battle evil, not a faceless and powerless individual.
A Science Ninja has no call for personal revenge."
   "All right," Ken said slowly. "All right. I'll leave him alone,
Doctor Nambu, for your and ISO's sake. But if he deviates from his
contract by so much as a *hair's breadth*..." Leaving the sentence
suspended for dramatic effect, he rose and left.
   "He's getting to be like Joe," said Jinpei in the silence that
followed.

When Ken next met the mutant, a few weeks later, it was more or
less in the same part on town, on the same day of the week, but a
few hours earlier. Instead of books, she now carried a shopping bag
with something heavy in it, and instead of catching his eye she
avoided him. She was more casually dressed than the previous time,
and looked tired. She averted her eyes when she caught sight of
him, and quickly walked away.
   He ran after her, shouting her name. She slowed to a halt, eyes
closed.
   "Just leave me alone, will you."
   "I received orders to keep an eye on you, and I will."
   "Oh, fine. Suit yourself." She continued her weary walk. Ken
followed, wondering if he should offer to carry her bag, then
cursing himself for thinking of it.
   "You weren't like this last time we met," he said accusingly.
She didn't answer, making her way instead to the familiar red car
standing in a paid parking space. She checked the meter; ten
minutes left. Tiredly she unlocked the doors and laid the shopping
bag carefully on its side on the back seat, prompting Ken to wonder
what was in it.
   "I suppose you'll be wanting to come along?" Without waiting for
an answer, she held open the door to him. He climbed into the seat
next to the driver's.
   "What's in that bag?" he asked, as soon as she had reversed out
of the parking space and entered the driving lane.
   "Hardware," she answered curtly. This was the woman Galactor
captain all over. He felt he was back on familiar ground.
   "What's it for?"
   "To enhance system speed, so the graphics data will be processed
less agonizingly slowly and I won't be losing as much sleep as I am
now."
   Ken tried to think of something more to say, but it was Katze
who first broke the silence. "I may have a visitor. I hope that
doesn't bother you."
   "When have you ever worried about bothering me?" Ken thought,
and then his mind went back to what Nambu had said: "Let us hope he
will wreak less havoc as a woman." Possibly the mutant's feminine
side was emerging. If so, that spelled hope for the future.
   "So, how's Jun?"
   "What do you mean, `how's Jun?'"
   "Didn't you two have something going?"
   "What do you know about that?" he demanded. She sighed, tiredly.
   "I may be a lot of things, but I'm not stupid. And I'm not
blind, either."
   "What makes you so interested in my private life?"
   "Nothing. I was only trying to make conversation." Skillfully
she picked her way through the busy traffic.
   "Who were those people I saw last time, anyway?"
   "Friends."
   "Were they Galactors?"
   "My, you've got a one-track mind, haven't you? No, none of them
were Galactors. One of them has been, but she was chucked out along
with me."
   "Did you willingly leave Galactor?"
   Katze sighed very, very deeply. "No, but they thought I was
dead, so a new mutant was hastily prepared. I don't think they want
me back now."
   "Would you like to return to Galactor?"
   "To set your mind at ease: no."
   "Why not?"
   "Because I prefer this life. And also because I was less than
impressed with the management," she added as an afterthought.
   "How come you didn't die, anyway?"
   "Friends saved me."
   "Would you care to be a bit more specific?" he asked, irritated.
He was getting fed up with her short replies.
   She sighed again. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she
said, as she swung onto the Expressway No. 5 again. Once on the
raised freeway, she accelerated, and the car tore across the road,
throwing Ken back against the seat. On reaching the concrete fence
surrounding her home, she abruptly braked, and Ken was thrown
forwards against the seat belt. She opened first the gate, and then
the garage door with the remote control; then she reversed and
backed the car into the garage, craning over her shoulders with
that concerned expression typical of drivers edging their car
backwards into a small space. Ken didn't speak until the car was
safely inside.
   "Why were you running away from me?"
   "I didn't feel like seeing you just now. And I didn't think you
wanted to see me, either. Look, I'm just a nobody from now on,
okay? Ignore me."
   "If you wanted me to ignore you, why did you draw my attention
last time?"
   "I happened to spot you, and I couldn't resist." Letting him
out, she picked up the bag and carried it to the front door,
putting it down to dig into a pocket for the keys. She shut the
garage, but left the gate open.
   "Aren't you going to close the gate?"
   "Who's going to come looking for me?"
   "I understand you have some highly secret information in the
house. Information that Galactor would love to get its hands on."
   "It's safely locked away. Anyone with the equipment to get at
those plans would have no problem breaking through that fence.
Anyway, Galactor doesn't even know I exist."
   "What if they found out you're still alive?"
   "They'd eliminate me, probably. I know too much."
   This, Ken reflected, was surely true. Maybe that was why s/he
had joined with Galactor's greatest enemy.
   "Why did you decide to work for ISO?"
   "Like I said, everyone needs a job."
   "But why ISO?" he insisted. "You could have found a job at some
ministry or industrial company. Is it because you want protection?"
   "That, and other things." She obviously didn't want to talk
about it. "All right, if you want to know, I want to see Overlord
X destroyed. Coffee?"
   "You want to see Overlord X destroyed? Why?"
   "It's personal."
   "You want revenge?"
   Fatigued, she sank on the couch, supporting her forehead with
one hand. "Not even. Coffee?"
   "Yes."
   "Black?"
   "Sugar. No milk."
   "Right. Hang on a minute."
   "Sharkey, you home?" a voice called from the kitchen. It was a
young voice, neutral in pitch. He recognized it as Angel's.
   "Where did you spring from?" she called back.
   "Garden! Heard you come in. Want me to make the coffee?"
   "You're my saviour! Yes please. One black and two with sugar."
   A clattering and rushing of water was audible from the kitchen.
"How many lumps?"
   "Just bring out the tray." She leaned back in her chair with her
eyes closed and her head tipped back, then veered up again like a
spring. "Oh damn. Forgot." She dashed off to the kitchen.
   "Where are you going?" Ken cried, rising to follow her. He found
her in the kitchen next to Angel, emptying the contents of a tin
can into a dish: brown goo with chunks in it. Opening the door, she
entered the garden straight from the kitchen, put the dish at her
feet and whistled a few times, shrilly. There was a sound of
vegetation being pushed aside and a sleek, slightly built bluish-
grey cat slid sinuously up to her and started to circle her ankles,
rubbing its head against her legs and purring. She picked it up and
purred back at it, ruffling its fur, and their purring mingled
until it was no longer clear which sound issued from whose throat.
Ken looked in puzzlement and wonder at the long fingers fondling
the small grey ears and lovingly scratching the neck and throat. 
   "Ken, meet Grey Hunter," she smiled. "Grey, say hello to Eagle
Ken." She took the cat's little paw and waved it at Ken as if it
were a doll's arm. The cat gazed wide-eyed at Ken to express a
momentary interest, then resumed its purring. She lifted it up to
her face and laid its body against her cheek. Docile at first, the
cat started squirming after a while.
   "Yes, you're hungry, aren't you, and I'm keeping you from
dinner," Katze said in a cutesy little voice, as if addressing a
small child. She put the creature down, and it attacked the dish
ravenously. Angel had come outside to join them.
   "That cherry tree seems to be doing okay now," he said
critically, pointing to a small and delicate tree with trailing
branches. It had leaves, but not as many as it should have had, and
it looked distinctly moth-eaten.
   "Yes, I didn't know if it would survive. Such a shame, too...
You should have seen it in Spring."
   "Pink or white?"
   "Pink, and it's got these huge blossoms. I don't know what it's
called, but I still have the label someplace."
   "And the blueberry bushes?"
   "Well, they look pretty dead to me but Win said I should wait
till next year and see. The soil shouldn't be a problem though...
They need acid soil, don't they?"
   "And shade."
   "So they shouldn't complain."
   "Yours?" Ken asked, pointing at the eating cat. She turned to go
back inside. "Nah, just a stray. Either that or she gets out a lot.
She always drops by here."
   In the living room, a tray with three steaming mugs and a box of
sugar lumps had been placed on the table. Taking his lumps and
stirring, Ken remarked: "I didn't know you were into gardening."
   "I'm into survival," Katze responded, blowing the steam off the
top of her mug. "In all its aspects. Sosai X always said we could
live with pollution. I happen not to agree."
   "Me neither," Angel seconded her. "But then I never agree with
anything the goon in the tube says."
   "Amen."
   "Are you two friends?" Ken asked, frowning.
   "Yep," Angel smiled.
   "Yup," Katze said happily.
   "Since when?"
   "Oh, a long time," Katze said.
   "Since a certain person introduced us on a certain chatserver,
to be exact," Angel added. "Of course, he didn't know who we were
at the time."
   "He knew who I was, though," Katze said with a wide grin.
   "Yeah, and I never told you. He was really mad at me
afterwards," Angel confided to Ken. Ken was becoming more and more
quizzical.
   "You knew who he was, and yet you say you are friends? Do you
know what he is, and what he's done??"
   "Better than you do, in fact. I also know where he was born, how
he lived, and what his upbringing was like. All in all, enough to
make me take a very charitable view of him." Angel put an arm
around the mutant's waist, and she smiled at him. Ken was
temporarily at a loss for words. Fixing a stare on Angel, he said
the most intelligent thing that occurred to him.
   "I always thought the Irish had red hair and freckles."
   "I always thought the Japanese were small and yellow with little
slit eyes."
   "He's half Jap," Katze said. She yawned cavernously. "His mother
was American." 
   "Tired, Sharkey?"
   "You have *no* idea."
   "Gonna fit in the chips 'n stuff this afternoon?"
   "Nah, too sleepy. I might goof up and make a wrong connection.
Then I'd have to take the whole machine apart again." She yawned
again. "Didya finish the dishes?"
   "Yeah, and made you some of those pancakes. I put them in the
fridge, you can just chuck 'em in the microwave when you're hungry.
Didn't peg out the washing, though."
   "Never mind." She waved one hand dismissively. "I'll do that. In
fact, I'll do it now and then just crash on the couch. Ken, do you
want to witness the riveting sight of a mutant hanging up laundry,
or would you prefer to stay here and finish your coffee?"
   "I want to see where you're keeping the plans," Ken said. Katze
groaned.
   "Looks like I'll be pegging out the washing after all. Sharkey,
hon..."
   "I'm going, I'm going." Wearily, she hoisted herself to her
feet. "C'mon, I'll show you the computer room. Angel, if you'll
join us..."
   The computer room was on the first floor, and in a far greater
state of disorder than the living room. Sheets of paper lay
everywhere, as did pencils, rulers, compasses, books and little
models. Two large computers and a laptop sat on the desk.
   "Disregard the second one," Katze said in response to Ken's
questioning frown. "That's just for simulations. And computer
games, of course."
   "Computer games? You play computer games?"
   "Heh heh... Even write 'em, as a matter of fact... Want to see
it?" She switched on the larger of the two. A colour-bar menu
appeared, and she selected AVI_SIM. Almost at once, the image of a
cockpit appeared onscreen.
   "What's this?" Ken cried out.
   "It's a simulation programme. Like the type used to train
pilots, but, if I may say so, rather more sophisticated. Works with
a joystick. Care to try?"
   Ken was delighted. It was, indeed, the most realistic simulation
he had ever come across. All the instruments were there and
functioning, the simulated view was perfect and when he pushed the
joystick forward for a nose dive, he even saw a quite convincing
ground come up to meet him.
   "Hey, you'll crash it!" She reached over him to pull the
joystick back and right the imaginary plane. Ken concentrated on
the screen with shining eyes, trying out this possibility and that.
The plane, he discovered, was armed.
   "Hey, I didn't see that one before," Angel said. "Where did you
get it?"
   "Didn't. Wrote it in my spare time."
   "Well of *course* you did," he said, giving her a playful cuff.
"Hey, I'd better go fill that clothesline. Looks like your aviator
just found out about the guns," he added over his shoulder,
catching the electronic whizz of simulation lasers being fired.
   "Like it?" Katze asked, leaning against Ken's chair. He nodded.
   "How about introducing a competitive element?"
   She switched on the second computer, which had a more elaborate
system of directories, and selected the same programme. Another
cockpit appeared onscreen, identical to the first.
   "See that little speck just left of centre?" she pointed out on
Ken's screen. "That's me."
   "That's you??"
   She nodded, and seated herself behind the second screen,
joystick in hand. "All right, fancy a bit of air combat?"

   "You went to Katze's house??" Jinpei gasped. Ken nodded surlily,
arms crossed and brows lowered.
   "And?"
   "And nothing. It only confirmed what we already know, that he's
not to be trusted."
   "You're just mad because Katze beat you at Avi-sim," Joe said,
grinning widely. Ken glared furiously at Joe.
   "Avi-sim?" Jinpei wanted to know.
   "A computer game," Joe told him. "It's a realistic simulation of
air combat using a standard model fighter plane. Uses a lot of
memory, but it's fun. She beat me too," he consoled Ken.
   "Yes, but you're not a pilot!!!"
   "Playing a game on a screen isn't the same thing as actually
being in the air," Jun hastened to soothe his temper. "It calls for
different skills. In fact, Jinpei would probably be better at it
than you are."
   Jinpei had been listening with great interest.
   "Do you think he'd let me play?"
   "Jinpei! You know what I told you! *Don't* go near the mutant!"
   Jinpei sighed. He had promised Jun to stay away from Katze. What
a host of lost opportunities it had meant.
   "Why don't you ask him," Ken said nastily. "Better still, why
don't you ask Joe, as he seems to be on fairly good footing with
the mutant."
   "Hey, just doing my job!"
   "What, playing computer games?"
   "It beats hanging around on the couch cleaning my gun!"
   "Is that all you use the couch for?"
   "No, I also sleep on it from time to time. Alone." Both Ken's
and Joe's shoulders were thrust aggressively forwards. Jun quickly
interposed herself.
   "Now, Ken, fighting isn't going to get us anywhere. Just imagine
how pleased Katze would be if he saw you like that."
   "You're right." Ken composed his face and straightened his
posture. "We're letting him sabotage us without even having to do
anything. Obviously, he's even more dangerous than I thought." Joe
scowled. Ken decided to let it pass. "But there's one thing he
hasn't counted on. We're a team. We live together, fight together,
and die together. *Nothing* can come between us." He turned a manly
and meaningful gaze on Jun, and she answered it with a look of
devotion. Joe put his hand to his mouth to stifle an upcoming
giggle.
   "Now. About the Skyhawk project. I'm to test this model for
superior manoeuvrability in a fake air combat. If it passes the
test, it will be adopted as the UN's standard fighter plane. If it
doesn't, it goes back to the lab and gets redone until it does."
   "Wasting millions of bucks in the meanwhile."
   Ken glared at Joe. The latter was becoming more and more
critical of his employer lately, and especially of Nambu's latest
pet project. Mutant influence? Ken decided to keep a strict watch
on Joe.
   "Obviously, the prime target for attack and the main enemy to
defend against will be Galactor. So, this model should be up to and
above Galactor standards."
   "Shouldn't be too hard."
   "Yes *thank* you Joe, it's nice to hear you criticizing Galactor
for a change. I was beginning to worry. Now we, as Galactor
experts, should know all about--"
   "Why not ask Katze?"
   "Are you out of your mind??"
   "If anyone's a Galactor expert, it's Katze."
   "That's true, Ken," Jun said fearfully.
   "Yeah!" Jinpei nodded eagerly.
   "The mutant's out of it! And that's final!"
   "Okay, fine... What about Ryu?"
   "He's busy, as you very well know, and we won't be needing him
anyway. As I was saying, we, as Galactor experts, will be planning
the test flight and combat, as we know what kind of opposition the
plane should be able to overcome. So kindly rack your brains for
all Galactor ploys, tricks, traps and strategies that you can
remember or think up, and present them in written form to Nambu in
two months. Meeting adjourned."
   Unfortunately, by the time four piles of scribbled and
diagrammed pages had been prepared for Doctor Nambu, he had some
disappointing news for them.

   "Guess what. Ken thinks it's your fault the project got held
up."
   "Surprise surprise."
   They lay entangled under the bedclothes, Katze's cheek resting
on Joe's head. "So what did he say about your going to my place?
Apart from the usual innuendo, that is."
   "Nothing. Didn't tell him."
   "And what did you say about the project?"
   "I told him funds. That, and G-Town sprung a leak."
   "Yes, that more or less covers it."
   Joe slid his hand down her flank, skipping on each rib. "And the
real reason?"
   "Well, funds, chiefly. It's going to be damn expensive making
the prototype, and Nambu doesn't seem to realize we don't all have
a private fortune at our disposal. Plus G-Town's going to take more
time and effort than they expected."
   "What's wrong with it, anyway?"
   She launched into a long explanation about millibars and
exponential increases in water pressure that largely bypassed his
brain to spout out again through the opposite ear.
   "Uhhhh, you're talking to someone with an IQ under 280 here..."
   "Okay, let me put this more simply. It's an underwater base,
right? Way, way down underwater."
   "Right."
   "And it's got hatches and ventilation shafts."
   "Right."
   "Logically, these should be crushed by the underwater pressure,
and the whole thing should just fill up with water."
   "<ulp> Right."
   "But ISO wants to go against the laws of logic, and keep the
inside dry. Enter the mad mutant."
   "Right?"
   "Going against the laws of logic requires turbines, pumps and
some very heavy engines. Not to mention watertight and pressure-
resistant doors."
   "Right." 
   "Now ISO put all this in, but apparently it wasn't illogical
enough, because the whole thing started to fill up with water
anyway. My job's to see what went wrong - or right, on an
existential level - and correct it. Fast. Before everybody drowns."
   "Right."
   "Which would be easy enough in itself, only ISO believes in
multifunctionality."
   "Which means?"
   "Which means they want me to design a turbine model that doesn't
just push out the water, but that also generates electricity, takes
care of ventilation, tapdances, mixes drinks and plays "The Star-
Spangled Banner", on a harmonica, backwards."
   "Uh. Right."
   "That was a joke, you idiot. Laugh."
   "Uhhuhehehehe."
   "As you can imagine, that makes it all a little harder. Which
means that, for the time being, Skyhawk's just not going to happen.
Unless Nambu comes up with a really bright suggestion."

   "You say he did what??" Nambu exclaimed with unwonted energy,
even upsetting his glasses. He quickly righted them. Jinpei nodded
with shining eyes. "And it was just like a real plane, with dials
and switches and guns and stuff..." 
   Joe wondered if he had done the right thing. Finally giving in
to Jinpei's pleas, Joe had taken him to Katze's house for a game of
Avi-sim on the strict condition that he wouldn't breathe a word to
Ken or Jun. Jinpei had beaten him most of the time, but Katze had
solidly trounced them both. "Heh, I've flown a mecha or two," she
modestly excused her success.
   "And exactly how realistic is the simulation?"
   "You'd have to ask Ken," Joe said. "Looked pretty realistic to
me. She fed the data of the standard UN fighter planes into the
simulator and stuck an electronically designed three-dimensional
landscape onto it."
   Nambu wondered exactly how and where the mutant had accessed
these data, but decided to let it pass. Apparently Katze had
written the programme out of boredom, without realizing its
potential practical uses.
   "Do you realize that if we did the same thing for the Skyhawk
and an unspecified Galactor craft, we could test it with
practically no expenses?"
   As a matter of fact, Joe had thought of this, and immediately
proposed it to Katze. She had rejected the idea of a simulated test
run as being far too unreliable.
   "That's great! Should we tell Ken?" Jinpei happily suggested.
Joe cringed.
   "I don't think Ken would be the most diplomatic choice to
approach Katze. No, I'll have a word with him myself," Nambu
concluded. "In fact, I think I'll have a word with both of them.
Thank you, Jinpei. You've made a very valuable contribution to the
project."
   "Maybe you shouldn't approach Katze just yet," Joe suggested
carefully. "She's had a bit of a shock recently... The lab
incident..."
   "Ah yes, the fight. Your charge reacted rather strangely to a
chemical substance, I gathered. However, I also gathered from his
therapist that he suffers fits of aggression in general. Which
brings me to another point. Just how stable is he?"
   "She's fine!" Joe protested. "And it's not aggro, it's just that
she gets these attacks and she doesn't know what she's doing.
Sometimes she just screams. Besides, she always knows when it's
coming." Katze's career as an ISO guinea pig had been abruptly cut
short when, in a chemical-induced fit of rage, she had hit a lab
assistant in the face with a table and destroyed all the equipment
in the room. Although the violence had been unintentional, she had
been glad of its result.
   "That sounds *very* reassuring," Nambu said sarcastically.
   "Most of the time she's stable. And she takes medication when
she isn't."
   "Let's hope it will suffice to keep his head clear for the
duration of the project. You may go, both of you. Jinpei, thank you
once again." Jinpei beamed.
   He was still beaming when they walked towards the Condor
Attacker. "That was a great idea, wasn't it anikiiiiii!!" Joe had
grabbed him by the collar, lifting him off the ground.
   "You little sneak! You said you wouldn't tell anyone!"
   "You only said Ken and onechan," Jinpei managed to say.
   "And Nambu, obviously!! Oh hell..." He dropped Jinpei, who was
much surprised at his reaction. "I'd better give her a call. Oh no,
damn, she's at work. I'll see her tonight, then."
   "What's wrong, Joe? I thought you would be pleased."
   "Katze won't be, at any rate."
   "Why not?"
   "Because I put the same thing to her, and she said not even a
Galactor scientist would consider it. Besides, she doesn't want
Nambu interfering in her life. She's not too fond of him, as you
may have noticed." Also, Katze's accessing military files was not
altogether legal, nor was taking a copyrighted simulation programme
and re-writing it. She had done it without a second thought because
she'd assumed her programme would be for personal use only, and the
banal shoot-'em-up games that were legally available were too tame
for her. But, Joe knew, Nambu wasn't the sort of person to be
bothered with red tape. If the programme worked, he would overlook
the little sins committed in writing it. Dropping Jinpei off at the
Snack J, he tried to mentally phrase an explanation to Katze that
would not have her bite his head off and dance on it for good
measure.
   Meanwhile, Nambu had already placed a call and summoned a taxi
to take him to the ISO construction workplace where Katze was at
that moment supervising the testing of a heavy steel hatch. The lab
director, Mr Hakani, greeted him as he entered, having received his
orders and dug up the necessary files. Nambu skimmed through them,
pausing over the personal file of J. Hunt, testing engineer on
Design and Construction, employee no. 5003780. He smiled.
   "So, what would you say she's like?"
   "She's six foot tall, she's brilliant and she's got an attitude
problem. We don't see her much, she works from home most of the
time."
   "But would you say she's reliable?"
   "Oh, completely. She takes her work very seriously."
   "And she's presently involved in the restructuring of G-Town's
life systems and surface armouring?"
   "Yes sir."
   Nambu leafed through the appropriate files. "Take her off it."
   "What? But that would be impossible! It's in the final stages,
in a week we'll have it wrapped up. If we lose her now, it might
take a month. Not to mention what her own reaction will be, if she
gets cheated of her wages."
   "She'll receive the same remuneration as her colleagues. ISO
will supplement her wages. Right now, we need her."
   Hakani shrugged. "As you say..." He led Nambu to an office,
pressed a button and spoke a few orders into an intercom. About
five minutes later, Katze entered in a smudged lab coat and gloves,
her hair tightly braided back, looking foul-tempered. No doubt she
had given the man who had been sent to call her hell.
   "I see you care more about your toy aeroplane than about the
lives of your fellow-scientists," she snapped immediately on
entering. Nambu raised one eyebrow, but she was not abashed.
"Dammit, these people have been putting in massive overtime, barely
getting to see their family and practically having to *live* at the
lab just because this is supposed to be a goddamn emergency, and
you just breeze in and tell me to drop the project and leave. Who
the hell do you think you are? I told them a *week!* They're all
looking forward to a holiday, some of them are ready to drop..."
She was gesticulating angrily. "Told you she had an attitude
problem," Hakani mouthed to Nambu, then turned to Katze:
   "Are you aware of the fact that you will receive the same wages
as your colleagues who will finish the project?"
   "That's not the point!!"
   "Then what is the point, exactly?" Nambu asked calmly.
   "The point is, these people are tired, they want to go home! If
I stay, they'll be finished in a matter of days. If I leave,
they'll have to find someone to take over and the whole thing's
going to take months. I'm needed here! They're counting on me! I
can't just pull out."
   "Helvig can take your place." Oleg Helvig was a part
Scandinavian colleague who was an authority within his field, and
therefore travelled all over the world. Far older than Katze, he
stood the same height, and they enjoyed each other's company.
   "No, he can't. He's currently in Africa, testing different kinds
of ore extraction with regard to the Mantle Project."
   "Ah. I wasn't aware of that."
   "You weren't aware?? Damn you, Nambu, you're supposed to be in
charge of this department!"
   "Mr Hakani, if you'll excuse us for a moment..."
   "Of course." The director bowed and slipped out. Nambu checked
at the door to make sure there were no eavesdroppers, before
addressing the mutant.
   "Katze, I don't mind you yelling at me in private, but I must
ask you to show some respect in the presence of my colleagues and
subordinates."
   Sulkily, she bowed her head. "Are you blackmailing me?"
   "Merely reminding you of your duties. Now, I don't have to
explain to you exactly what it is I want, I presume?"
   "A realistic computer simulation of the Skyhawk for testing
purposes. It'll never work," she added.
   "Why not?"
   "Because a simulation on a screen will never cover all the
possible defects and malfunctions that may occur in the real
situation. You're just kidding yourself, Nambu. If I were you, I'd
wait for G-Town and the Mantle Project to finish and then see if I
could divert some funds into private hobbies."
   "The development of the Skyhawk is hardly a private hobby."
   "Oh come on, nobody needs that thing. The UN armed forces are
sufficiently equipped to deal with standard threats and situations,
and the Science Ninjas have their own means of transport. Anyway,
even if you do succeed in building the damn thing, what if Galactor
captures it? Remember what happened to its predecessor?"
   Nambu remembered only too well what had happened to the Blue
Hawk. First his machines, then his personnel... Hadn't Getz also
been called the Hawk? Apparently "hawk" was an ill-omened word in
connection with Galactor. But it also conjured up the forces of
good: Red Impulse, the missing G-2... He scraped his throat.
   "I am confident that Galactor will not be able to lay its hands
on this model - unless of course you intend to help them by handing
them the plans." She gave him an intensely venomous look.
   "You know where my loyalties lie."
   "Very well... So I can count on you?"
   "I'll see what I can do - hopefully I can wrap it up in a few
days so I can get back to the important jobs. But I'll need Ryu."
   "Impossible. He is in Hokkaido at the moment, taking over from
his father, who is seriously ill."
   "And of course no one can fill in for him? G-Town is filling up
and I get pulled off the project, but Ryu's daddy will die if
sonny-boy isn't there to hold his hand?"
   Nambu sighed. "Why exactly do you need Ryu?"
   "Because he's used to flying big mecha, and he's got some
experience with autopilots. Also, controlling the God Phoenix is
more like a computer simulation than flying the Eagle Sharp. Ken
flies by intuition, not by pushing buttons. He needs a real machine
to fly, he's worthless with simulations. Heck, even Joe beats him."
   "Do you mean he's already tried?"
   "He came to my house to check my security measures. Ended up
being blasted out of the sky in six out of six games." She grinned
at the memory.
   "So you would recommend Ryu?"
   "And Jinpei - little kids are best at action games."
   "This isn't an action game, Katze. This is a highly developed
weapon for use in the battle against Galactor."
   "If you use a computer simulation, that makes it an action game.
Like I said, don't fool yourself. Computer simulation is nowhere
near reliable. Why do you think I was testing that door?"

Ken was radiating fury as he drove Ryu and Jinpei down a by now
very familiar road. His authority had been thwarted, the
construction and testing of the Skyhawk had been delayed, the
team's solidarity was crumbling and there was one single person it
could all be traced back to. He had *not* been pleased after his
little interview with Nambu. Ryu was not pleased either, though for
different reasons. Only Jinpei was pleased, smiling in happy
anticipation. It was true that Jun had forbidden him to see Katze,
but she couldn't very well go against Nambu's orders...
   It was nine o'clock in the morning. Ken hadn't been able to eat
very much before leaving, as his stomach reminded him. He decided
to drop in at Jun's on the way back. Car doors slammed, and the
trio marched up to the front door of Katze's house, Jinpei in the
lead. He stood on tiptoe to ring the bell. They waited. A blue-grey
cat slid past them and bounded to the back of the house.
   "Hey, look!" Jinpei cried out delightedly, pointing after the
animal. Ryu was surprised.
   "I didn't know he had a cat."
   "He doesn't. It just passes by here, he said." The door opened,
catching them all off guard, and an enormously tall woman in a
bathrobe with bare feet, dishevelled hair and sleepy eyes appeared
in the doorway, yawning hugely. She drew back tangled locks of hair
from her face, and apologized for letting them wait.
   "I only just got up," she explained. "I carried on a little late
last night and overslept, but the stuff's ready, so if you'll just
come in... Anyone want coffee?"
   "*This* is Berg Katze?" Ryu whispered wide-eyed to Ken as they
filed in after her. Ken nodded moodily. "Normally, only Joe gets to
see him like this."
   They sat on the sofa, Ryu twisting his head this way and that to
take it all in. Katze brought them mugs of coffee on a tray, and a
can of soda pop for Jinpei. She had bought a few six-packs of the
stuff since he started visiting, as well as stocking some candy. "I
suppose that's the closest you'll ever get to motherhood," Joe had
grinned at her, ducking to avoid being whacked. Jinpei wondered if
it would be safe to ask for a candy bar with Ken present. Ken's
stomach gurgled.
   "Hungry?" Katze asked casually, setting out the mugs. Ken glared
at her. "Here's to make up for any carbohydrate shortage." She
entered the kitchen with the empty tray and came back with the tin
box containing Jinpei's store of goodies. "Here, tuck in. I'll make
some decent sandwiches at around eleven."
   Both Ryu and Jinpei availed themselves of the opportunity while
Katze went upstairs to dress, causing the leader of the Science
Ninja Team to glower even more. "He's reducing us to little
children," Ken thought, fuming. "And even Ryu falls for it.
Incredible that we should have beaten him again and again, yet now
that he is alone and defenceless, he defeats us easily. Katze, what
a cunning bastard you are."
   She descended again fresh and crisp in jeans and T-shirt, her
hair neatly combed. Catching a walnut candy bar between thumb and
fingertip, she proceeded to peel the paper off it as if it were a
banana and dispatched of it in two gulps. "Breakfast!" she
announced, and Jinpei laughed. "Okay, you two, coming up with me?"
   Ken paced the room while she demonstrated the use of the
programme to his team members. She caught him at it when she
returned for a second cup of coffee.
   "Bored?" she inquired. "We can play cards or something if you
like."
   "I am no child," Ken said with dignity, "and you needn't treat
me like one."
   "There's just no pleasing you, is there?"
   "Why should you want to please me?"
   "Be buggered if I know. Must be because Joe's always nagging at
me to be nice to you lot."
   "Does he nag at you? I didn't know."
   "There's a lot of things you don't know about him."
   They were facing each other with narrowed eyes, chins thrust
forward. Realizing she was about to be involved in another fight,
Katze turned away and dropped on the sofa. She lowered her head to
the armrest and, half sitting, half lying, closed her eyes.
   "Don't tell me you're still tired."
   "I'm always tired. I don't sleep very much."
   "Why not?"
   "There's always work to do."
   "I thought your job was finished."
   "Wrong. I finished Nambu's little assignment. There's still G-
Town, and after that there's various uranium plants that need to be
seen to, and a submarine to reshape, and a few monorail problems to
solve, and by the time all that's finished some other bit of
machinery will be freaking out under the pressures of modern life
and demanding immediate attention. There's always something."
   "Why don't you just take a holiday?"
   "Can't. Must be because I'm a workaholic. Also, I'm obsessed
with making money. Every day off means a drop in funds."
   "I thought you were obsessed with ruling the world?"
   "Not any more."
   "Why not?"
   "Because it's a stupid objective if you really think about it."
   "Is it?"
   "Well, isn't it?"
   "I don't know, you tell me. You're the genius."
   She sighed. For some time, neither spoke. Ken thought he could
hear little whizzing noises upstairs.
   "You've changed. What changed you?" he asked.
   "Hormones."
   "Don't try to be funny, please. I asked you a question."
   She rolled over on her back, her legs still dangling over the
side of the sofa and her feet trailing over the ground. "I don't
think I've changed, really. I've just adopted a different set of
priorities."
   "Would your friends have anything to do with that?"
   "Oh, probably."
   Ken decided to dig deeper. "Would you mind explaining exactly
why you changed your priorities? I seem to remember you were very
keen on becoming world ruler, by fair means or foul - preferably by
foul means, as I recall. Has your mind been wiped since then?"
   She laughed, a hollow, drawn-out laugh. "My mind has been wiped
more often than I care to remember. That was a lucky guess,
Gatchaman. Or have you been chatting with Stanley?"
   "Who's Stanley?"
   "My therapist."
   Ken knew who she meant. "His name's not Stanley."
   "Maybe not, but that's what I call him. And I have his
permission to do so."
   Ken was quizzed by this last remark. For a former leader, Katze
struck him as remarkably defiant. Although he didn't like to admit
it, the mutant fascinated him, and their recent, forced cooperation
had given him repeated opportunity to observe hir. S/he was, as Joe
had warned him, a person of many moods; yet the mood he was most
accustomed to, that of the sadistic megalomaniac, seemed to have
disappeared completely. She was still very far from feminine, but,
he thought to himself, she was progressing.
   "Is it because of Joe?"
   She lifted one eyelid. "Uh?"
   "Are you doing this for Joe's sake? There's no need to hide
anything from me, I know you sleep together."
   "Nah... I decided it wasn't worth the bother even before I met
him."
   A painful image surfaced in Ken's mind of the Galactor leader
unmasked, shifting between hir two shapes, in a state close to
hysteria: "Alone of all the Earth, I am a mutant born to the
destiny of a conqueror! Alone of all humanity, I was chosen by my
god - Overlord X!" And the same figure thirty minutes before
Earth's destruction: "Overlord, you didn't... This is not what you
promised!" And the last, desperate words flung at the empty screen:
"Why did you make me a mutant, then? If this was to be my fate, I
would rather have been a human... I would have been happier if I'd
been born as a human, Overlord X!"
   "Does it bother you to be a mutant?"
   "No, I've pretty much come to terms with it."
   "And what about your destiny to conquer the Earth?"
   She lifted an eyebrow. "What about the Earth's destiny to be
destroyed?"
   "There's no such thing as destiny."
   "Exactly." She rolled over to her side again. "The goon in the
tube just said that to make me believe I didn't have a choice.
Well, now I know I do."
   "And your choice is?"
   "To get a *life* before I'm too old to enjoy it. Time hasn't
stood still, you know. I've used up half of the natural human
lifespan in totally ridiculous and wasteful activities, and I don't
know how much I've got left. I'm not very healthy, as you may have
noticed."
   "You're not?"
   "I have a hormone problem. I take a lot of medication." She
yawned and closed her eyes again.
   "So what are you going to do now?"
   "I load the stuff onto diskettes and you bring it to Nambu.
Nambu gives me a big cheque and I go off for a holiday in the
Bahamas." Not only had s/he lost hir megalomania, the fear that
always attended on it had vanished as well. S/he was incessantly
poking fun at Nambu and the Science Ninjas, and had shown a
willingness to fight on more than one occasion. Ken wasn't sure he
liked the development. He could handle hir better as a mad maniac.
   He had intended the question in a more general way, but her
answer led him onto a subject that he also wanted to discuss. 
   "And the plans?"
   "Will stay where they are. They're perfectly safe, and anyway,
the centre's got all the backups."
   "That's not the problem. The centre's got hi-sec. You haven't.
What if a troop of Galactors comes marching to your house to help
themselves to whatever they want? Providing you won't be giving it
to them voluntarily, of course."
   "That's a very unkind thing to say, Ken. If I'd wanted to, I
could have sold your hides ten times over by now. As for security,
this isn't a house, it's a fortress. And it's got all sorts of
alarms wired to catch intruders. Even has a line running to Nambu's
place *and* a special little room in UN defence headquarters. Each
time I leave, I lock up and activate the whole setup. Your average
Galactor couldn't even get over the fence without alerting half the
country." She paused to yawn. "Which of course makes it all the
more interesting how Win could have got in when I was out
shopping."
   "Did she have the key?"
   "No, and neither did she have the code to turn the alarms off,
or the equipment to open the fence without being fried. Joe does.
Besides, everything was still locked. One must assume she squeezed
in through the keyhole - which still leaves the question of how she
managed not to set off any alarms. Oh, what the hell."
   "Is Win the girl with the big eyes?"
   "And the sworn enemy of Windows. Yes, that's Win."
   "She knows a lot, doesn't she?"
   "She knows everything. She's a planetary observer."
   "She's a what??"
   "A planetary observer. Heck, you should ask her about it when
you see her. She'll be around for another month or so."
   She straightened up when Ryu and Jinpei came down the stairs,
Jinpei looking very sad.
   "He beat me, aniki!"
   "Only two out of three games," Ryu consoled him.
   "He beat you??" Katze asked with arched eyebrows. "You
disappoint me, Jinpei. Have a Mars bar."
   Jinpei eyed her with that mix of forwardness and bashfulness
typical of children. "Umm, you said sandwiches..."
   "So I did. Hang on a minute." She left.
   "You beat him?" Ken asked Ryu, to make sure. Ryu nodded, almost
ashamedly.
   "Did you have any problems?" Katze called from the kitchen. "I
noticed a few bugs yesterday, but I fixed them."
   Ryu shot a look at Jinpei, unwilling to reply. Jinpei hollered
back: "The lasers fire too slowly sometimes!"
   "Yes, that's a memory problem. I'll pass it on to Nambu."
   Ken and Ryu exchanged embarrassed glances. There was a painful
silence, broken only by the clattering in the kitchen.
   "How's your father?" Ken asked in a low voice.
   "Better now. He was worried that I was working too hard. So he
was glad when ISO sent someone to replace me. I feel he's safer
that way, too. I promised to call him every evening."
   "And what does he think about, well..."
   "Nothing. He says he trusts Nambu."
   "Wish I could."
   "Wish you could what?" Katze came into the living room with a
large dish piled with sandwiches, which she placed in the middle of
the table. "Help yourself." She took one off the pile, and Ryu
followed her example.
   "You shouldn't listen to other people's conversations," Ken said
severely.
   "Oh dear. Lecture mode on. You're right, though; it's got me in
trouble before. But it's a hard habit to shake."
   "It did?"
   "Uh-huh. Even got beat up for it. And not by you, for a change."
   "When was this?"
   "Oh, a long time before. When I was a kid." She paused to finish
off the sandwich she was holding, and took another one. Ken was the
only one who had not touched the pile. "Go on, they're not
poisoned. I'm eating them myself. That should give you confidence."
   "I'm not hungry."
   "You don't like to eat under my roof, you mean. Well, never
mind. This is probably the last you'll see of me, anyway. Tomorrow
this all goes to the labs, and you'll be finishing the tests in G-
Town. Or elsewhere, as the case may be."

It was elsewhere.
   "I've never seen this place before," Jinpei gaped. Ken had. It
was a vacant hangar in the UN's military complex, chosen chiefly
because it was well-guarded. But it was rather ludicrous to be
sitting at a desk under the high roof, fighting on two computer
screens. Nambu had promised, however, that this was where the real
Skyhawk would be taken, once the simulation tests were done and the
prototype finished.
   "Katze says he understands," Jinpei said, taking Ken's hand. "He
says you only feel comfortable flying a *real* plane."
   "And what would *he* know about that?" Ken rejoined irritably.
"He only killed the best pilot in history, that's all. And he's
probably got me chalked up for elimination, too. He's just waiting
for me to drop my defences."
   Ryu didn't agree. "I think she's getting to be more and more
like a real woman. Whatever she used to be like, I don't think
she's dangerous now." Jinpei didn't think she was becoming more
like a real woman; but then Jinpei had heard her swear at Joe
during one of their simulated battles. Unlike Jun, she allowed him
to swear as much as he liked, and he had picked up some interesting
new vocabulary from her. However, he thought this might not be a
suitable moment to bring it up.
   The next weeks saw their carefully prepared plans and stratagems
transformed into simulations under Nambu's supervision. Katze
submitted information on Galactor vehicles, specifications for
anti-aircraft artillery and even a simulated model of the Devil
Star ("Not that they still use it, of course...") by modem, and
over the days, the plane's test initerary began to take shape.
Nambu had taken the geographical specifics of an existing terrain
on which a lifesize model of a Galactor base was to be erected for
the final testing of the prototype, along with fake Galactor troops
and weaponry armed with blanks. All of which, as Joe pointed out,
was going to cost a packet, but they had already saved so much by
using the simulation programme, Nambu countered, that no expenses
should be spared to test a weapon that would, in the long run, save
millions by effectively preventing Galactor attacks worldwide. And
besides, how did they think the old GP had been tested? Or their
individual vehicles? Ken frowned; he hadn't thought of that. Still,
his heart skipped beats at the thought of finally flying the real
thing, and he practiced hard at the simulation in the meantime.

   "Hiya mighty pilot," a crystal voice plinked on Ken's ear. He
was irritated. This was the day of the great launch - in a manner
of speaking - and he didn't want anything to happen which might
detract from its solemnity. Like having Win turn up at his side out
of airy nothing. Katze was right: she was unnerving.
   He swivelled his head like a bird's, the visor tipping as he
looked down on her; she was barely over five feet, and any
impression of tallness was only caused by her extremely slight
frame. She was like Katze shrunk and condensed. And possibly as
dangerous, too.
   "Me? Naaah, I'm harmless. Anyway, if you're pissed off at *me*
being here, just look who's coming."
   He didn't even have to turn his head back to guess. Katze,
escorted, as usual, by Joe. Joe wore the grave expression of a
father taking his children to church, but the mutant's eyes shone
with merriment. On spotting Win, she broke away from Joe and
started to run at her, with ridiculously outstretched arms. Win ran
towards Katze in the same posture, emitting a high and constant
groupie-like squealing. When they met, or rather, collided - which,
fortunately for Ken's ears, didn't take long - Win bounced up into
Katze's arms and snuggled her face against the taller woman's neck.
"So how's my huggable gender bender?"
   "Fine for now, but I won't be if those guards get a load of what
you're saying."
   "Naw, they don't speak English, do they? Just Japanese?"
   "Don't be too sure." The security men were, in fact, eyeing Win
suspiciously. She didn't act like a spy or intruder, but unlike
Hunt, whose appearance was unmistakable, no person of her
description had been authorized to enter the grounds. Still, Hunt
treated her with unusual cordiality. Now she was reciting a poem.
   "How courteous are the Japanese!
   They always say: `Excuse it, please'."
   "Did you bring that - person - here?" Ken growled at Joe.
   "Me? No way. I don't even know her."
   "Katze seems to know her, all right."
   "Katze knows a lot of people."
   "A lot of people, huh?"
   "Mostly scientists," Joe defended her. The poem came to its
conclusion:
   "He smiles, and bows a friendly bow,
   `So sorry, this my garden now.'" Katze shrieked and held her
sides.
   "Has he been like that all morning?"
   "'Fraid so."
   "Let's hope he cools down when Nambu arrives."
   "Yeah, what's keeping Nambu? I mean, we're all here - troops
prepared..."
   "He had to check out something about a spy!" Jinpei contributed.
"Sshhhh!!" Joe motioned to him furiously. Ken's suspicion flared
up. Katze?
   "If I were a spy, would I come traipsing into the place like
this?" Win hollered at him from where she was standing. She was a
telepath. She had to be. "In fact, I'm not even supposed to be
here," she said, turning to Katze.
   "Damn right you're not. Push off, you'll get me in trouble."
Katze was hiccuping with laughter as she said it. Ken and Jun eyed
her with disapproval. Ryu was not there; he was in Hokkaido to deal
with a family emergency.
   "Shouldn't have taken that Happy pill," Katze apologized in
response to their fixed stares.
   "It was my fault too," Win confessed. "I've been reciting
Blackadder to him all morning. `Tell me, George, who's using the
family brain cell at the moment?'" Katze doubled up. "`Ma'am, you
have the body of a weak woman, but the mind of a criminal genius.'
Want me to do some Millicent, or would that shatter the Great
Eagle's visor?"
   "Are you a scientist?" Ken asked her testily.
   "I'm an alien!" she squealed at him delightedly, in a voice fit
to cut glass. "I'm a six-limbed wing-toting humanoid life-form from
outer space! Don't look so worried, Sharkey, they never believe you
when you tell 'em the truth."
   "Q.E.D.! Besides, there *are* no women scientists where I work -
 not counting the pretty secretaries. I'm the closest thing to a
woman in the whole damn lab."
   "Bloody sexists. They'll be sorry when we come to take over the
planet."
   "Woo hoo!"
   "Until that time," Ken cut in, "would you mind clearing off?
This is no place for women. We have a battle staged."
   "Ergo, it is no place for women?" Win wanted to know. "What's
that little womanoid with the funny helmet doing here, in that
case?"
   "That's Jun. She *loves* him." Katze rolled her eyes upwards
despairingly as she said it. Jun blushed under her helmet. "You
poor thing," Win commiserated.
   "Ken's going purple," Katze alerted her. "Oops, wrong word. Now
he's going black."
   "ALL WOMEN OFF THE FIELD!!" Ken bellowed.
   "I guess it's just male ego trying to assert itself, eh?" Win
said, shaking her head. "From man the mighty hunter all the way up
to man the mighty aviator. What progress you humans make."
   "Hey, I'm not human."
   "Yes you are. If it's used as an insult, you are." Katze whacked
her. "Uh-oh. It's super-male-chauvinist Nambu coming. He's got an
unhealthy curiosity for alien life-forms - he'll be dissecting me
before I know it. I'd better split." And split she did, much to
Ken's relief.
   Joe's mouth corners twitched. He very badly wanted to laugh, but
he knew that if he joined in, it would break down the last vestiges
of the mutant's self-control, and Nambu was just now arriving.
   "Well, little womanoid, why are you still on the field? Didn't
you hear what the Great Eagle just said? Or are you intending to be
his co-pilot?" Trust Katze to tease Jun if she had a chance. Joe
nudged her, hard, while trying to keep his own face straight.
   "This is a man's job!!" Ken burst out.
   "In that case, I currently don't qualify," Katze purred at him.
This time Joe kicked her. She kicked back, but he was too nimble.
   "Look, aniki, that's Nambu in the car!" Both the Swan and the
Swallow turned their heads to the distinguished-looking black
limousine that drew up on the turf.
   "Now all we need is Ryu," Katze said, recovering her poise.
   "Ryu's not coming," Ken said emphatically.
   "Why not?" she demanded.
   "Family trouble," Jun said.
   "So who's going to fly the damn plane???"
   "We were hoping Nambu would tell us." Nambu, having descended
from the limousine, made his way towards them through the ranks of
uniformed men. Ken hailed him, and explained the predicament, with
no mention of their earlier visitor.
   "I know," Nambu responded quietly. "I received his call.
Fortunately we have a spare pilot, or rather, a spare gunner. You
will take the navigator's position."
   "And who will be my partner?"
   "The contestant with the highest score in the simulation tests,"
Nambu said, now very quietly. Katze grabbed Jinpei and tossed him
up into the air, his wings flapping about him. "Wheeee! Jinpei's
gonna fly!!"
   "I said the highest," Nambu reiterated, in a voice so low as to
be barely audible. There was a silence as five minds digested this.
Katze's mind, being the brightest, digested it fastest. "Oh no."
   The same thing occurred to Ken exactly ten seconds later. "Oh
no."
   "I was never there for the real testing," Katze pleaded. "I only
beat him once or twice in a game."
   "You beat him six times in a row. And what about your simulation
of the Devil Star?" It was true that she had operated a simulated
Devil Star from home in two test runs, sans Assassins, of course;
they had been gotten rid of along with the change in management.
Because of the long distance from which she'd worked, the lags had
made the ship unwieldy and hard to navigate, so eventually it had
been bombed to smithereens by the simulated Skyhawk. But only with
great difficulty.
   "This plane is supposed to be flown by really stupid people,
right? I mean, why else put in an autopilot?"
   "The autopilot, as you well know, is interactive, allowing the
craft to stay on course even if the pilot should, for whatever
reason, lose consciousness. Now get in."
   "I don't even know the course..."
   "Ken does. Now leave!"
   "This wasn't my idea," she said helplessly to Ken, as they
climbed into the Skyhawk and strapped themselves in their seats.
   "I'm sure it wasn't," he responded in freezing tones. With an
unhappy shrug, she bundled her hair on top of her head in a
practiced movement before pulling on the helmet. Ken noticed, and
cold anger filled him. His enemy was sitting at his side, here, in
the fighter jet that was his to test, and whose making the mutant
had tried to thwart at every turn. And even now s/he was still
there to hinder and entrap him.
   Katze, much sobered by the unexpected duty laid on her, quickly
familiarized herself with the controls. They were simple enough;
she only operated the lasers, and it was Ken who would be keeping
the plane on course, aided by the autopilot if necessary. She, too,
had access to the autopilot, but she knew it was pre-programmed and
would bring them back to the hangar with no need of direction. She
hoisted the straps of the pre-installed parachute over her
shoulders and pulled out a notepad with a pen attached.
   "What's that for?" Ken wanted to know.
   "To note down any defects. I won't have time to remember
everything."
   "You'll have lots of time. The test run will be completely
automatic."
   "In that case, why not put in crash test dummies?"
   "Maybe Nambu thought the safety of the plane would be assured if
you were inside it."
   "Gee. And no escape craft, even. I'll have to save this baby
with mind power."
   Ken took off rather faster than he'd intended. The plane rose
with a few sickening lurches. Katze brought a hand to her mouth,
then started scribbling furiously. The plane found its altitude,
levelled, and the automatic pilot switched on. "Test run initiate,"
Ken spoke into his microphone.
   Katze's helmet had neither receivers nor microphone. "So where's
it going?"
   "Why are you asking?"
   "Inquiring minds want to know. I have to shoot at something,
don't I? I'd like to know what it is."
   "You'll shoot when I tell you to."
   The jet continued in a virtually straight line.
   "Something tells me we are not going to cause chaos and
destruction within the boundaries of Utoland."
   "We're going to Furinken. So shut up."
   "Yes capt'n."
   Silence.
   "Katze."
   "Yes."
   "Who are all those people I saw at your house?"
   "All those people? You only saw four."
   "I want to know who they are."
   "Oh, all right... I'll start with the easiest. Brace is my
former bodyguard. He used to work for Galactor because I used to
work for Galactor, that's all; he's not loyal to them, and
certainly not to X. Lenore is an ex-Assassin. Win is, as I told
you, a planetary observer and Angel alias the Bloody-Minded
Irishman is her chosen mate, for obvious reasons."
   "Lenore is an ex-Assassin?"
   "Yes."
   "Ex as in `retired'?"
   "No, she left. She made use of the chaos after my supposed death
to destroy her personal files and move out."
   "Why did she do that?"
   "Same reason as why we all do."
   "I thought once you signed up with Galactor, you never left."
   "It's true, she's in danger. But then again, so am I."
   "Then why did she join? Or didn't she have a choice?"
   "As a matter of fact, she did. Most Galactor recruits don't.
They're forced to join because their relatives join, or whatever.
But she joined voluntarily."
   "Why? Did she support Galactor's aims?"
   "Not at all. She wanted revenge. Galactor gave her the means to
get it."
   "Revenge?"
   "I don't suppose you noticed what ethnic group she belongs to?"
   Ken's mind went back to the round, chocolate-coloured face, the
flat nose, the black eyes...
   "You mean..."
   "That's right. She's a native American."
   "Which means..."
   "The UN's justice doesn't extend to all parts of the globe.
Certainly not to her little cardboard hovel in the slums. I won't
give you her life story, but let's just say she was very dedicated.
Given that our ranks are expressed in numbers, her initial rank
made a very high figure. She had to start all the way at the bottom
and work her way up."
   "Ah. And this Win person?"
   "No Galactor connections whatsoever. Just a friend."
   "Is she an alien life-form?"
   Katze was silent.
   "I asked you a question."
   "Sosai X is an alien life-form."
   "I know. Is she from the same planet?"
   "No."
   "What was she doing here just now?"
   "She said she'd be coming to see me off. I had no idea she meant
here, of course."
   "Did she know the area is out of bounds for civilians?"
   "Oh, like she gives a fuck."
   Silence.
   "Tell me something... Who are these pale warriors who fly by
night?"
   "Heh heh... Didn't think you'd remember that. Their planet has
seven moons, and myth has it that they are seven warriors,
daughters of the sun. Or of their earth, depending on which
religious system you pick."
   "Seven moons??"
   "Plays merry hell with their tides. And would play merry hell
with their periods, if they had them. Which fortunately they don't.
Unfortunately, though, three-quarters of their planet is covered in
ocean."
   "Oh. Interesting."
   "Forget about it. She only shows up once every century. Soon
she'll be leaving."
   "Do they live that long?"
   "No. Time runs differently in their part of the universe."
   Silence.
   "Is... is Angel an alien, too?"
   "No, I must disappoint you: Angel is a human being. They call
him groundhog sometimes because he can't fly."
   "And they can?"
   "Well, fly... Glide, really. Their planet has a lower gravity
than ours, I've been told."
   "Seems to me the gravity would have to be a *lot* lower to allow
even someone like Win to fly."
   "She's pretty big by their standards. She's bigger than most
males of her kind. That's why she picks on Earthlings, she told
me."
   "I can't believe it."
   "You don't have to. In fact, I'd prefer you didn't."
   "Are they all like her?"
   "In what sense?"
   "She's psychic, isn't she?"
   "Yes. Hardly the first psychic I've met, though. There's plenty
around if you take a look. But, no, she's hardly representative of
her species. Firstly, her size. She's a bit of a freak by their
standards. And they're not some futuristic civilization, either.
>From what I've gathered, they're technologically backwards and
mostly feudal."
   "Likely to take over the Earth?"
   "Never. For the greater part, they don't even know it exists."
   "And for the lesser part?"
   Both their stomachs plopped as if they had just gone down in a
fast elevator.
   "What the hell was that??"
   "An air pocket. We're drawing close to the mountains, there's
likely to be a certain amount of atmospheric turbulence."
   "Great god."
   "Oh come on, it's not as if you've never flown before."
   "I have and I'm not awfully fond of atmospheric turbulence. I
feel sick."
   "You'll just have to bear it. How did she get here?"
   "How did who get where?"
   "Your planetary observer. How did she arrive on our planet?"
   "Same way as X - quantum leap. Oog." The plane was dropping
again. "Aren't we going to crash or something?"
   "The autopilot can handle it. That's part of what we're
testing."
   "So you don't actually know if the autopilot can handle it -
yet--"
   "Quantum leap?"
   "That's what they call it. Ken, I think I'm gonna throw up."
   "Not here, please. Wait until we reach the plateau."
   "Yessir. Blugh."
   The Skyhawk had passed the first peaks, and was steadily
descending. Through the clouds, they could see the great dome of
the dummy Galactor base approaching. The turbulence had decreased
sufficiently for Katze to take her hand away from her mouth and
start scribbling again. Ken glanced to the side to see what she was
writing. As far as he could make out it was a series of sketches
with arrows representing different vectors, and some formulas in
the margin. Ken's transmitter beeped.
   "Still feeling sick?" he asked.
   "Uh-huh."
   "Go to the back and open the hatch. You still have some time
before the action starts."
   "Thankee." She undid her seat belt, rose and made her way to the
back of the craft. The Skyhawk had some room behind the cockpit for
the storage of food, weapons, explosives, even prisoners or
refugees. It had a trapdoor in its belly to drop bombs, and another
trapdoor in the side for loading. He knew she would be hanging out
through the latter, buffeted by the cold air. Fortunately, the roar
of the engines prevented him from hearing anything. "Eagle here.
The mutant is in the back."
   "Nambu here. Are you sure he can't hear us?"
   "Positive. He's leaning out the side door, vomiting. If I didn't
know better, I'd think it was morning sickness... Was your
suspicion confirmed?"
   "Yes. There's been a leak, and the purpose was to capture the
Skyhawk. I'm afraid Katze turned against us."
   "I'm not surprised. Do you think they'll do anything, with him
in the plane?"
   "It all depends on whether they want him dead or alive, and
whether they know he's inside at all - he may not have had an
opportunity to contact them before take-off. After all, he didn't
know he would be flying."
   "All the easier for him to turn it over to them... So what do I
do? Do I kill him now?"
   "No. We have no proof. Besides, there's nothing he can do. No
matter what he tries, he won't be able to override the autopilot,
and even if he does, he would be risking his own life in trying to
turn over the Skyhawk. Let us hope that his present position has
sufficiently neutralized him; I'll deal with him when you touch
ground again. Meanwhile, be prepared for a slightly more realistic
test run than you expected. Nambu out."
   "Slightly more realistic, huh?" Ken said to himself, settling
back in his seat. A V-shaped formation of flattened, stingray-
shaped dummy-Galactor crafts was flying towards him. He pressed a
few buttons. Although the general course was fixed, the autopilot
allowed him some freedom to manoeuver. The guns, he knew, would
lock on as soon as the dummy crafts were in range, in response to
tracking devices on the dummies. Alternatively, if those were real
Galactor crafts, they would not. Ken decided not to take any
chances, and veered away sharply to avoid the formation.
   An ear-splitting scream reached him from the back of the plane.
He had forgotten about Katze.
   "Are you trying to kill me or what??" she yelled at him as she
stumbled back into the cockpit.
   "Stop whining. You're wearing a parachute." As Ken had foreseen,
the guns remained inactive. One of the stingrays loosed a volley at
them.
   Katze's eyes widened as she dropped across her seat. "They're
bloody *Galactors*!"
   "Yes, they are. Do you think you could get your act together now
and just do your job??"
   "Nambu never said anything about this!" she exclaimed as she
struggled into the seat and fastened the belt. Ken dropped into a
nose dive, then pulled the nose abruptly up again to avoid yet
another volley. The plane was as superbly light and manoeuverable
as he had hoped, but it was a drawback that he couldn't reach the
guns unless he pulled an arm muscle. Katze, still occupied with the
seat belt, almost crashed face first into the controls.
   "You're only doing this because you hate me!" she wailed.
   "SHUT UP!!!"
   Abashed, she aimed the guns and fired several rounds. The first
five stingrays went up in billowing smoke. She fired again to trash
the remaining crafts. More appeared, and she demolished these also,
while Ken dodged about trying to avoid their bullets. Another
problem was brought to Ken's attention: what with his darting
around, she was having trouble aiming. This plane would only suit
experienced fliers, capable of close cooperation. He could name,
offhand, at least one person on his own team to which this didn't
apply.
   "I hope my breakfast hit their windscreens," Katze said
venomously, sending long rays of searing light this way and that.
   "Wouldn't make a difference. These are piloted by robots."
   "I *know* that. What's next on the agenda?"
   Ken went over the course in his mind. After the small, fast
crafts would come a big one, a mighty battleship with enough
firepower to almost demolish the God Phoenix. It would, of course,
explode if hit in exactly the right place. Ken hoped that a
possible Galactor facsimile would do the same.
   Katze let out a despairing groan when she sighted the enormous,
cigarette-shaped mecha loom on the horizon like a levitated slug.
It was a ponderous craft, not built for diving and turning, but
with its aerodynamic shape it could attain high speeds.
   "Who designed that monstrosity? Gel Sadra?"
   "We did," Ken thought, but his pride didn't permit him to say
it. For the moment, the most important consideration was to find
out how to destroy it. Ken decided to simply gun it in various
places and see what happened.
   "Katze."
   "Yes."
   "Fire. Now."
   "But.. that thing's manned!"
   "Have you suddenly acquired a conscience??" Ken demanded.
   "No, just a loyalty conflict." She aimed the lasers and fired.
The smooth surface deflected the beams. She turned two knobs and
fired again, with the same result.
   "Dammit."
   "What's the matter?"
   "They've got a mirroring shield, and the beams are too diffuse
to pierce it. If we'd been any closer, we'd have gotten ourselves
fried."
   "Any suggestions?"
   "All I can suggest is that we run for it. I tried to focus the
beams, but it's not working."
   "Why not??"
   "I'd have to test the damn thing in a lab to find out." So much
for simulation, Ken thought. "Is there any specific place I should 
aim for?"
   "I don't know. You'll just have to keep trying."
   Katze tried at various points, without success. Then the giant
slug itself let loose a massive BOOM, sending a tremor through the
Skyhawk. Surprisingly, the plane was undamaged.
   "I don't think they're aiming at us. Obviously they want this
thing in one piece."
   "Either that or they want to get you alive," Ken said acidly.
Katze turned to him with a look of ghastly horror.
   "Oh no... Don't tell me..."
   "Don't tell me what?"
   "If they know I'm in this thing... If they even know I'm alive,
I'm dead meat. Or I'll wish I was."
   "That's funny, I thought you still had connections with
Galactor."
   "Ken, this is no time for jokes. Not even bad ones. Can you fly
around that thing?"
   "No. I'd move off course too far, and the autopilot would
correct me."
   "Can't you turn the damn thing off?"
   "No."
   "In that case, Ken, it's been nice knowing you. Bye." She made
no move to leave, instead training the lasers on the extreme tip of
the slug ship. She fired continually for thirty seconds, the beams
shearing the tip and deflecting outwards by only a few degrees to
disappear into the far distance.
   "Just what do you think--"
   The tip very suddenly started to glow and exploded. The slug-
like ship lurched and began to fall. Tiny black crinkles fell from
the open end like ash from the tip of a cigar. Finally, the ship
lost its balance altogether and plummeted somersaulting towards the
earth, where it exploded on impact. Shock waves passed through the
Skyhawk and its pilots.
   "Another crater to amuse geologists," Katze said, relieved.
"Praised be Fate."
   "What were you trying to do?"
   "I thought if maybe I heated up the shield at either end it
might wear thin and melt away. Also, I was hoping I'd hit one of
the stabilizers. Seems I did both."
   "Did you know how the ship was constructed?"
   "No, but I've built enough of my own to guess."
   Ken was unconvinced. "Fine, but don't do that again. You'll
deplete the energy."
   "Oh no. How much power do we have?"
   "Not enough to be fooling around like this." She reached for her
notebook. "Later!! We don't have time for that now."
   "Yes capt'n," she said humbly, and rested her hand on the
controls again. "Now what?"
   "According to plan, we sheer close to the ground to exterminate
an army of foot soldiers, then we bomb the base. Taking care to
avoid the anti-aircraft artillery, of course."
   "And, according to plan, the base is cardboard, the army
consists of dummies and the ack-ack units fire blanks. What if they
don't?"
   "We avoid their missiles. As planned. And we try to destroy them
if possible." Katze looked sceptical, as well as slightly tense.
   "This is sheer lunacy. Does Nambu know this base is manned by
real Galactors?"
   "How do you know it is?" Ken asked levelly.
   "Well, stands to reason, doesn't it??"
   "Nambu said there was a leak. He told me to expect a slightly
more realistic test run than anticipated." Ken's face was hard as
granite as he said it.
   "So Nambu knows it's a Galactor trap, but he sends us off
anyway. Specifically, he sends *me* off. Does he want me dead?"
   "Shut up."
   "And why didn't the God Phoenix come with us?" she demanded, her
anger rising. "He might at least have spared a thought for you."
   Ken didn't exactly know why Nambu had not taken this precaution.
To avoid drawing attention? "Because the God Phoenix can't fly
without the Eagle Sharp," he hazarded. "Besides, I'm sure they'll
come when I call them."
   "At this distance? They'd never arrive on time. Anyway, I happen
to know they can wire the GP up to work even without your plane."
   "Only in emergencies. It wouldn't hold."
   "There's your dummies," Katze pointed.
   Ken looked down through the window at the black beetle shapes,
far below the wings. No soldiers; tanks. They rolled over the stony
terrain in thick droves, aiming upwards. Despite her nerves, Katze
giggled.
   "What's so funny?"
   "Look at it. It's obscene."
   "Just wipe them out, will you??"
   "Yes capt'n." Laser fire scoured the ground, turning the black
metal red-hot. At least their reach had not been affected. However,
most of the tanks held out well, and Ken was having difficulty
dodging the grenades. He brought up the jet as high as the
autopilot allowed.
   "We're not making much of a dent in them," Katze remarked.
Momentarily distracted, Ken failed to properly avoid a missile, and
a loud crack to the left startled them both. A star appeared in the
window. Katze swore in fluent French, Spanish and Japanese,
frantically pushing the controls.
   "Now what?" Ken said irritably.
   "Something's wrong with the lasers. They still fire, but they
only have a reach of about five yards now. How long before we pull
out?"
   "Until the end of the plateau, then over the base and back." Ken
was zigzagging furiously. Come to think of it, Katze reflected,
something had been wrong with the lasers from the start. And all
the shocks the plane had received would not have done anything to
improve their delicate mechanism. She wanted to reach for her
notebook, but didn't dare.
   Ken had been thinking along the same lines, but had drawn a
different conclusion. "So you're saying we have no more firepower?"
   "Practically speaking, yes. Are you sure you can't switch off
the autopilot?"
   "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Ken thought. "No," he said
icily.
   "In that case, I see only one option. You call in the GP and I
bomb those tanks."
   "If you use the bombs on the tanks, we won't have any for the
base."
   "Fuck the base. It's probably reinforced anyway. Right now I'm
concerned with saving our skins, okay?"
   "Yeah, right," Ken thought. "Very well, go ahead. I'll contact
the team when you're through."

   "No," Nambu said quietly.
   "But Dr. Nambu, Ken said they might be in trouble," Jun pleaded.
Joe was some distance away, pacing the field nervously. His mind
kept going back to what Katze had said about the unreliability of
simulations.
   "Ken said he would manage. What he basically wanted to do was to
let me know that my suspicions were correct."
   "What suspicions, Doctor?" Jun asked, in awful certainty of what
the answer would be.
   "That Katze has turned traitor to us, and intends to hand the
Skyhawk over to Galactor. It appears that the base we constructed
for the practice run has been taken over by Galactor troops, who
have rapidly converted it into a real base, armed with real
weapons. Now this should not be a problem, only it appears the
lasers have jammed. Quite coincidentally, of course. It also
appears Katze has demanded twice that the autopilot be disabled."
   "And can it be disabled?" Jun whispered. She knew the answer to
that, too.
   "No. The only thing Ken could do is leave the plane and fly away
to avoid capture, destroying it if possible. That would take care
of Katze, too. But now you see why I don't want to send in the God
Phoenix. There's only three of you, and you wouldn't be able to do
much good. I'm sure Ken will have the good sense to make his
escape, once the traitor has been unmasked." He had been dropping
his voice steadily, because Joe was at present pacing in his
direction. Jun brought her hands to her mouth. "Oh, Ken..."
   "What's the news?" Joe asked. He was aware that Nambu had been
calling Ken, although he hadn't listened in. Knowing of Joe's
attachment to the mutant, Nambu decided to tell as little of the
truth as possible. "There have been technical difficulties."
   "Like what??" Joe asked, instantly agitated.
   "The lasers are no longer firing properly."
   "Is that all?" Relieved, Joe passed a hand over his forehead. "I
was afraid they were going to crash or something."

   "We're going to crash or something!" Katze said, agonized. One
of the wings had been damaged, making the plane harder to steer. It
had taken their complete supply of missiles to end the volleys from
the tanks; now they had swung up to a safe altitude, but they both
knew the course would lead them over the great dome of the base,
with whatever surprises it held.
   "We'll just have to sit out the ride and pass over it without
doing anything," Ken said.
   "Damn right. For the last time, is there no way to switch off
this bloody autopilot?" She had been trying for the last twenty
minutes, shells exploding to either side of them.
   "Not unless you rip out the computer."
   "I'm half tempted to try." The plane, made unsteady by the
tatters on the wing, quivered as it battled against a current of
air. Katze silently prayed that the engine wouldn't give out. "When
are they going to come?"
   "Who?"
   "The bloody Science Ninja Team, of course!!" she snarled. Nerves
made her bare her teeth involuntarily. "They know it's for real,
they know we're in deep shit, what're they waiting for?"
   "Nambu said it wasn't a good idea. He said we could manage this
by ourselves."
   "You can, you mean. I'm stuck to this sodding machine. I don't
have Birdstyle, remember?" She snarled again in frustration and
supported her forehead on one hand. "Oh god, why did I have to get
up this morning?"
   "To pass a final batch of data to your Galactor contacts?" Ken
suggested stonily.
   "I told you, this isn't a time for jokes. We're about to be -
wait a minute." She turned to Ken, eyes blazing. "What do you mean
- this was just a trick? Nambu sold me to Galactor?"
   "Sold *you*??"
   "That explains it all, doesn't it? Nambu puts an anonymous call
to the nearest Galactor agent, has me loaded into a plane that's
headed straight for hell and makes sure the guns won't work, so
there'll be no chance of my getting away. He gets rid of me, and
they have a new guinea pig for their goddamn labs. That was the
whole idea, wasn't it?"
   Something in Ken snapped. "It was you who wanted to return to
Galactor! And you wanted to take the Skyhawk with you for a
souvenir!"
   "Like fucking hell I did! I didn't want to get involved with the
whole project to begin with!!"
   "Oh, sure, and I'm supposed to believe that?"
   Suddenly weary, she turned away. "I don't care what you
believe." She leaned her head on her hands.
   "Pay attention! They're still out to get us."
   "Who cares. As if it'll make a difference."
   "So you're just going to sit and wait until they take you down?"
   "Why not? There's nothing I can do. The most I can hope for is
that I'll die in the crash." She muttered something.
   "What were you saying just now?"
   "Nothing. Look, can you try to contact Joe for me?"
   Ken wondered why she would ask. So that Galactor might intercept
his signal and home in on them? Or so she could somehow manipulate
Joe into something?
   "What for?" he finally asked.
   "I want to talk to him. It may be the last time."
   "Before you join the ranks of Galactor again, you mean?"
   She sighed, a deep, shuddering sigh. "Before I either get
captured and tortured or toasted alive in a burning fighter jet."
   "What makes you think either is going to happen?"
   "Look, we're going to be skimming over that base in a minute.
They want this machine, possibly they want me as well, in any case
you can be sure they'll try something. Now, please, would you call
Joe for me?"
   "All right." He activated his bracelet. There was no response.
   "It's not working," he said blankly. She hit the control panel
with one fist, her face twisted.
   "What do you mean, it's not working??"
   "There's some kind of force field scrambling the signal."
   "That's impossible! There's no..." Her voice trailed off. To the
left and right of them, the sky was filling with hovering aircraft.
Her fists tightened around the now useless laser controls until the
knuckles were white.
   "Ken. Get this thing as high as you can."
   "Why, what.."
   "Just *do* it, please." She spoke through clenched teeth. "Damn
you, Nambu."
   "Would you mind telling me what the matter is?"
   "Just look straight ahead."
   Ken looked straight ahead. The programmed course was a low dive
over the base, then a turn and back again on the long trip to the
airstrip in Utoland. Now he saw that no such turn would be
possible. Tall towers were rising from the different points in the
rock, the strange aircraft surrounding their pinnacles. Slowly but
surely, they were forming a high-altitude fence to entrap the
Skyhawk.
   "What would you say are your chances of getting through that,
mighty pilot?" she said bitingly.
   "Fairly good, as long as they don't start taking pot shots at
us."
   "Which they will."
   "No, I don't think so."
   She lifted a bleak face to him. "Why not?"
   "They've got nets. Look."
   She looked. They did. Big metal nets spinning out from tower to
tower.
   "Well, this proves one thing. They didn't get the plans." Her
voice was hollow.
   "What makes you so sure?"
   "They wouldn't be taking so much trouble over us otherwise. How
are you going to dodge those?"
   "I'm not. I suggest we fly at them full tilt and burn a hole
through them with what's left of our lasers."
   "And how do you suppose the helicopters will react to that?"
   Ken bit his lip. It was true. There was no way to save the
Skyhawk. He'd have to destroy it and escape. Those had been Nambu's
orders.
   "Katze."
   "Yes." Her voice was very quiet, almost lifeless.
   "This plane has a self-destruct switch."
   "Ducky."
   "I was to activate it and escape. Leaving you to be blown up
with the plane."
   "Well, what's stopping you?"
   "I hoped to the last moment there would be a way to save the
Skyhawk. But now we'll both have to take the jump."
   "You will, you mean. I can't budge."
   "You've got a parachute."
   "I can think of happier fates than landing somewhere on a
Galactor base. I'm a traitor now, remember?"
   "You are?"
   "I left Galactor. That makes me a traitor in their eyes, whether
I actually do anything against them or not. Besides, the new mutant
doesn't like me. She doesn't know I'm alive, but if she did, she'd
probably take steps to remedy the situation. Preferably in a
painful way."
   "I thought... I thought you'd be okay with them."
   "Maybe that's what Nambu thought, too. Who knows."
   "No. Whatever he's done, he never contacted anyone in Galactor.
Besides, he wouldn't try to get rid of you like that. He'd have you
killed on ISO territory if he thought it was necessary."
   "That's a comforting thought." All of her good humour of that
morning had evaporated. "I've got an idea."
   "I'm listening."
   "You get out and fly home in Birdstyle. I'll take the Skyhawk as
close as I can to one of these installations and then self-
destruct. I might even be able to do a little damage with the
lasers."
   "But... You'd be killed."
   "At this point, it doesn't make a difference." She passed a hand
over her face and eyes.
   "I.. I didn't intend this to happen."
   "Neither did I. It was my fault for going along with this stupid
plan in the first place. When you get back, please tell Nambu I
hate his guts and I'll be coming back to haunt him. Also, please
tell Joe--" Her voice broke.
   "What do I tell Joe?"
   "Never mind. Tell him we had fun, and would he please look after
the damn cat. I don't want it to starve. That's all. Now get
going."
   Ken shrugged unhappily. He flipped up a part of the panel to
show the self-destruct switch. Life would be boring without hir. He
realized that he would be witnessing hir death for the second time.
Maybe another miracle would happen to pull hir through.
   He pushed the eject button and prepared to spread his wings. Now
the roof of the plane was supposed to slide open just before he
ejected, and Katze could see that it wasn't happening. Quickly, she
grabbed him by the helmet to pull him off the seat.
   But not quickly enough to stop him from being smashed sideways
into the plane's roof. A long crack spread across the window's
glass as the seat thudded back to the floor, Ken lying across it
unconscious. The plane swung into a low dive, the dome coming up at
them.
   "Great," was Katze's only comment.

   "What do you mean, you can't reach them?" Joe asked
aggressively. He had been pacing throughout the two hours of their
absence, becoming progressively more restless. In addition to his
worries about the plane's construction, he was beginning to smell
a trap.
   "Exactly what I say. The signal seems to be scrambled. They may
have run into some kind of force field."
   "That wasn't part of the programme, was it?"
   "No, it's highly irregular." Joe's eyes narrowed.
   "Why don't you tell us the truth, Dr. Nambu?" he said in a
dangerously quiet voice. "Why don't you just tell us they were
captured by Galactor, while we've been standing around here doing
nothing?"
   "There is nothing to prove that they have been captured by
Galactor." Nambu knew that this wasn't going to be easy. "They
have, however, run into Galactor forces, who have been alerted to
the fact of today's test run and are trying to use it to capture
the prototype. Of course, you realize who it was that warned them."
   "That's crazy!!" Joe burst out. "She's dead scared of them! She
knows they'll tear her to ribbons if they catch her again!"
   "Except, of course, if he brings them the peace offering of a
new, advanced fighter jet prototype."
   "You mean... Even so!" he continued vehemently. "She *left*
them. And they know it. They're not going to let her live." He
covered his face in grief, then shouted at Nambu: "She never wanted
to be involved! You put her up to this! You knew what the risk was!
Just because you couldn't trust her!"
   "I should think I have ample reason not to trust him. Think
about it, Joe. He's one of the most convincing liars the world has
known. He may have been deceiving us all this time."
   "It's not true! I don't believe it!!" Jinpei had approached
fearfully to see what all the shouting was about. "Damn you, Nambu,
you just sent her out to die!!"
   "That's irrational, Joe. Ken is in the same situation."
   "Yes, but he can fly! He can save himself! Berg..." He hit his
fist in the palm of his hand. "Dr. Nambu, when are they scheduled
to return?"
   "In half an hour."
   "I'm boarding the God Phoenix. I'm flying out to meet them."
   "You can't. Ryu's not here."
   "It's got an autopilot installed now, right?"
   "And what would you do with it? You're only risking getting it
blown up, possibly with yourself inside. Remember what you said
about not wasting resources?"
   It was a nasty dig, but true. "I don't care. I'm going, and
you're not going to stop me. Jun, are you coming?"
   Jun was torn. "Joe... Dr. Nambu may be right..."
   "Why use the GP? Why not just send out an air fleet?" Jinpei
suggested. "I mean, this is a UN Air Force base we're standing on,
right?"

Katze was perfectly calm. Galactor reflexes had kicked in; the
woman Galactor captain never freaked until the crisis was safely
over. Ken's helmeted head was lying in her lap, his legs trailing
against the plane's side. Carefully running a hand over his side,
she had been able to establish that at least one of his ribs was
broken. To try any manoeuvers now would only risk hurting him
further. She wondered if it would make any difference if she
removed his bracelet, so that no one would recognize him as
Gatchaman; if she self-destructed the jet now, or within reach of
the metal nets; if she did anything at all. In five or so minutes,
she would be caught in the nets. She would never see Brace again.
She would never see Joe again. She suppressed whatever emotions
this evoked, and kept her eyes fixed on the towering installations.
There was a dark smudge on one of them.
   "You can go kill yourself now," she said bitterly to an
imaginary Joe. "I won't mind. I'll be dead."
   Four minutes.
   The size of the smudge suddenly and dramatically increased as
two great leathery wings unfolded. Katze, looking stony-eyed at the
nets and airships, didn't notice.
   Three minutes. She aimed the impaired lasers at the airships
hovering over the nets, and fired an experimental blast. Of course,
the beams fell miserably short of the mark. Not a bad machine,
really; she hadn't quite been fair to Nambu when she had called it
a toy aeroplane. If the construction hadn't been defective, they
would have had no problem escaping. They might even have been able
to fulfil their objective.
   There was a blinding light and a deafening sound as the Skyhawk
hit what Win always called etherspace. When her vision cleared, she
was somewhere else altogether, flying above the clouds in the
direction of the UN airstrip they had started out from. Inside her
singing head, a happy crystal-clear voice faintly rang:
   "Did you think the goon in the tube is the only one who can
teleport?"

   "That's them!" Jinpei pointed. Jun, who was sitting in the seat
behind the pilot with Jinpei on her lap, contacted Joe and Nambu,
who were being flown in similar planes. A bombing squadron had been
dispatched to deal with the not-so-dummy Galactor base.
   "They're way off course," Joe commented. "And they still haven't
signalled to us. How do we know they're still alive?"
   "They got the plane out somehow," Jinpei said. "And not with
help from the autopilot, either. I guess Ken pulled a stunt when he
found out Katze was double-dealing us."
   "Jinpei..." Joe growled warningly.
   "At least they're moving in the right direction," Nambu said.
"The autopilot still seems to be functioning." "That's right," Jun
rejoined. Otherwise, the Skyhawk looked pretty much the worse for
wear, with dents, cracks and a ragged edge on one wing that was
slowing down its progress. All four were startled by a Bird
Scramble.
   "Oh, Ken, you're alive!!" Jun exclaimed. No voice message
followed, however.
   "Ken, this is the Condor... What happened? How's Hunt?" Joe
tried in anguished tones. No response.
   "Ken, if you are alive, please report immediately," Nambu said
authoritatively. No answer. Instead, the plane started to descend,
veering down for a landing.
   Nambu instructed the pilots to follow it, and as it landed
neatly and automatically on the airstrip in the military
installation of the UN, they landed alongside.
   "I wonder what explanation Ken will have to offer," Nambu said
with a certain grimness.
   However, Ken was not the first one to appear when the Skyhawk's
side hatch slid open. Hanging out of the side with the helmet under
one arm, Katze cried: "Medic!!"

Contrary to expectations, Katze came to visit Ken in hospital with
a package wrapped in gift paper.
   "I didn't know what to take," she explained herself. "I thought
a real man like you wouldn't appreciate chocolates or a bunch of
flowers, so I racked my brains to think of something you'd like...
Here, open it..."
   He did. It was a Gameboy featuring Whizzman and his Super Jet
against the Evil Gloobs.
   "Perhaps not the luckiest choice..."
   He couldn't help laughing. "Is this a hint for me to practice my
gaming skills?"
   "Well, no, not really... But it's the only flying you'll be
capable of for the coming months. I hoped you'd like it."
   Jinpei, he thought, would kill for a toy like this. It was
expensive, too. "Thanks. I do. So what did Nambu say?"
   "It's going back to the lab for component testing. And guess
what, I'm in charge this time. Which is fine, as I currently have
nothing else to do."
   "He doesn't blame you?"
   She sniggered. "Better yet, he actually apologized to me. It
turns out the leak was from his own office."
   "It *was*??"
   "Practically delivered the plane right into Galactor's hands.
Just like the Blue Hawk. Only this time we escaped."
   "He must be very embarrassed."
   "On more accounts than one. G-Town's finished, too. Joe and I
threw a party to celebrate."
   "Hunt?"
   "Yes?"
   "That's your name now, isn't it?"
   "Don't worry. I'm used to having lots of names. You won't
confuse me. You wanted to say?"
   "I'd like to apologize, too."
   "For what... For being a stuffed-shirt stuck-up sexist twit?"
   "Actually, no. Just for being impolite."
   "You mean, yelling at me when I was sick in the plane."
   "Yes. That wasn't very nice of me."
   "S'okay. I would have done the same."
   He grinned. "You would?" She nodded, smiling.
   "Guess you haven't changed very much then." She shook her head.
   "But you're with us now." She nodded.
   "I'm with Joe," she confided, gave his hand a quick squeeze, and
left.