Grickin had unconsciously closed his eyes, but he felt no pain.
Nervously, he opened his eyes and saw the soldier fallen on the ground a short distance away. A lump of snow piled up on a branch, about twenty pounds’ worth, had suddenly fallen on his head.
It was not a natural occurrence, of course; the gunshot just now hadn’t been from the assault rifle in the soldier’s hands. A third party had fired at the trunk of the tree near him, from somewhere. After all, hitting a big target sitting still was easier than a small target that was constantly moving.
“Are you okay?!”
He heard a shout. Japanese—rare in these parts. Another gunshot went off. The snow on the ground near the agent trying to get up flew about. He saw the brawny soldier raise his hands.
“Grickin, tie him up!! That was a lucky surprise attack that happened to work. If we take him on for real, we won’t be able to deal with him!!”
He remembered that voice. He looked toward where it came from just as Shiage Hamazura was running toward him, weaving between the trees, a gun in his hand. In a moment, as though irritated by how Grickin still wasn’t moving, he tied the agent’s hands behind his back with barbed wire.
“…Why…?” murmured Grickin, not thinking properly, before remembering the situation. He peeled the girl he had been trying to protect off him and said, “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Let’s get away from here. The guy you just tied up is from an elite Russian unit. His friends will figure it out soon from the gunshots and radio silence. We have to run before they surround us.”
“I’ve got a bone to pick with them.”
“?”
Grickin frowned as a girl approached, following in Hamazura’s wake. Her name was Takitsubo, if he remembered correctly. She’d been sick with something until a little while ago, but it seemed like she’d recovered.
Hamazura looked her way, and Takitsubo dutifully took the girl’s hand. Then, as natural as anything, she led her away—so she wouldn’t hear what they were about to say.
“The Kremlin Report.”
“The what?”
“There’s a nuclear launch silo near the settlement that isn’t active anymore. The top Russian officers think Academy City might seize it, so they want to hit first and deploy a bioweapon in the area. Apparently, they set up a process for handling all this in advance.”
“…Bastards…,” groaned Grickin.
Normally, such a story would have been immediately unbelievable. But the presence of that unofficial combat unit, the soldier after his life just moments ago, had been far too sinister.
“You mean that unit is gonna spread a horrible virus or something?! Even if we had all the settlers evacuate now, I don’t know if they’d have enough time!!”
“Well, Takitsubo was the one who read the report because it was in Russian, but apparently they have to go through certain steps to spray the weapon. There was a report on predicted casualties that had data on wind direction, temperature, humidity, and stuff like that. It seems like the humidity—the amount of moisture in the air—is important for spreading the contagion, but it’s highly possible it’ll turn into diamond dust with how cold it is.”
“In that case…”
“But if they use a large amount of water vapor to change the temperature and humidity, the contagion will spread out like an explosion. They want to take this heat-retaining gel and make it into powder, then scatter it upwind from the target point. Special gel that won’t freeze even at these temperatures. Once they’ve optimized the temperature and humidity in the appropriate area, they can unleash the weapon in question. If a person goes into it one time, the virus will survive by the infected person’s body temperature and moisture, creating a carrier.”
“Then we might be able to do something if we can just stop them from spreading that heat-retaining gel they need for the first step.”
“It said on there it was called the Steam Dispenser. It’s a device for making the gel into powder and shooting it into the air. Like a special humidifier, I guess. Anyway, that, uh, unit or whatever. We have to somehow destroy that machine before they take action.”
Somehow.
That was easy to say, but it meant fighting that elite unit and winning. If the enemies moved as a group, two people wouldn’t be enough to take them out in a surprise attack.
“…What do we do? Call the Academy City forces garrisoned in the settlement?”
“There’s no time. And if we do something big, it might make them push up their schedule for spreading the stuff. We can estimate the Steam Dispenser’s rough position by geographical and weather data with the wind direction. We haven’t figured out exactly where it is. If that unit starts right now, we’re already too late. And…”
Hamazura paused.
Grickin lowered his face slightly at his silence. “Sorry…”
“It’s fine. But we need to move before the ones left get suspicious. Grickin, can you drive a car? Here’s the key. We hid the jeep three hundred meters west of here. You take the girl and go back to the settlement for now.”
“But then you’ll be—?!”
“More of those guys could be wandering around here, so we can’t leave the girl here. It’s too dangerous to have her walk back alone, and bringing her to the battlefield is out of the question. Please, escort her back. And the soldier I tied up, too.”
After saying that, Hamazura took out his cell phone.
“Let’s trade phone numbers. There’s nothing around here, but apparently we still get a connection because of some relay antennas. I’ll contact you once I find the Steam Dispenser. At that point, even if they realize Academy City’s doing something, I can put a stop to them before they start the spread. And then you have to do whatever you can to persuade the Academy City soldiers to have the people in the settlement go on an exodus. If I don’t contact you for thirty minutes, same thing. Be careful of the wind direction. It may not matter much if they actually spray the weapon, but it’s probably better than moving around without thinking. I’d actually like them to run away right now, but not if they run blindly to where the Steam Dispenser is waiting for them. Understand?”
“…”
“Do you understand me, Grickin?! If something happens to me, and you don’t do your job, a lot of people in that settlement could die!!”
“…”
“It’s impossible that every single person in the Russian army wants to use a bioweapon like that! That’s why they sent in a team that would willingly take on the heartless mission of the first spraying operation!! If they get a certain amount of results here or whatever, those soldiers will lose all self-control!! Meaning the same thing could happen in the rest of Russia!! We have to avoid that. I don’t want anyone being a victim—not any of the Academy City soldiers or anyone in the settlement. Do you understand me now, Grickin?!”
“Yeah, I understand you, damn it!! I’ll protect those settlers with my life. You’d better not die out there, either!!”
Hamazura and Grickin, after exchanging cell phone numbers, slapped their palms together as if to run the plastic devices into each other. They said nothing more after that. Takitsubo, judging that their conversation was over, returned with the girl. Grickin took the girl’s hand, put the tied-up soldier on his shoulder, then headed off for where they’d hidden the jeep.
Hamazura put his cell phone in his pocket, then turned to Takitsubo and said, “We should go, too.”
“Hamazura. Considering the weather and geographical data in the report, I suspect the spot is about five hundred meters north of here.”
Takitsubo spoke smoothly, perhaps because she’d been in charge of reconnaissance for Item. It didn’t have anything to do with her ability, but she’d probably polished the skill to figure out plans based on data, too.
“There’s a small mountain, less than a hundred meters tall, and the wind blows down from there toward the nuclear launch silo and the settlement.”
“Won’t be at the mountaintop. They’re on a time limit, too—they want to wrap things up as fast as they can. I think they’ll try to quickly set up the Steam Dispenser as close to the foot as they can manage.”
Hamazura walked up to the place the soldier had been lying a few moments ago, then picked up the assault rifle and magazine he’d been carrying. Its weight and texture were entirely different from his handgun. He doubted he could use it properly, but going in with a single pistol would be far too unreliable.
For just a moment, the chill of the lethal weapon gave him pause.
But then he looked up to shake off the feeling, slung the band around his shoulder, and took a determined step toward the mountain to the north.
“Hamazura. Let’s finish it quickly. I’m sick of this war.”
“Yeah. And I gotta say, I hate this solar eclipse. Least they could’ve done is given us a view of the aurora.”