I think it was about four years ago when I... when we... began our duty of protecting and observing the commander’s son. It all started with an incident caused by his son.
Apparently, after being concerned about the weeds around his home, the boy had released a deadly defoliant composition into the garden. What’s more, this was something he’d made himself using nothing but commercially available chemicals typically found at hardware stores.
The commander’s wife had immediately contacted the commander after seeing what had happened. The commander had made arrangements to mobilize a squad with anti-chemical weapon suits ASAP. We’d laughed about it and told him to just call it a training exercise if he wanted a believable excuse.
After going to the trouble of traveling to the scene in a truck disguised as a vehicle of a civilian organization, what we’d seen there was pure hell. Although the defoliant had only been spread a few hours ago, the entire surface of the garden had turned brown, and the levels of contamination we’d measured with our equipment had informed us that the levels at the center were high enough to cause instant death from a mere touch. Despite all that, his son acted like he’d been caught playing a prank.
In other words, this young child had happened to feel like creating and using a weapon powerful enough to annihilate an entire city.
The commander had reported this incident to the upper levels of the United Nations, but the whole thing had been hushed up, probably because of a high-level political decision. However, we’d been given a mission of observation to ensure that the commander’s son was protected and that nothing like this could ever happen again. Although naturally, our purported duty was to protect the commander’s wife, Miki Arakawa, the discoverer of Mother’s Equation and the mother of new quantum mechanics.
Just now, the son had headed out into the garden. It seems he wanted to weed the garden. After that incident, the commander had sternly told him to simply remove weeds manually rather than using chemicals, and today he was doing just that...
Or so I’d believed...
I’d wanted to believe it...
The son had emerged wearing a powered suit from the storehouse. If it had been an ordinary powered suit, that wouldn’t have been a problem; powered suits for manual work were commonplace in ordinary households. However, this one...
“A sixth-generation military-use suit...”
I suddenly felt dizzy. This was a weapon that could destroy a main battle tank with a single frontal blow. It had the ability to protect the occupant against a direct hit from a missile, and a single unit could go head-to-head with an elite regimental combat team. It certainly wasn’t something for weeding a garden. Why was such a thing even in an ordinary household in the first place? Fair enough, this house may not be an ordinary household, but that sort of equipment should be kept in a research facility.
I sent a transmission to the commander. This situation was well beyond my control.
“Commander... it’s me.” I already sounded worn down when I called him.
At first there was too much noise, but eventually the commander heard my voice.
“Hey! What’s up?” the commander responded in a moronically cheerful voice.
Come to think of it, the commander is on vacation escorting VIP personnel in Africa right now, I realized. It’s not like he can head out to the scene.
“Your son is weeding your garden. In a powered suit.”
In response, the commander laughed as if to say, Yeah, what about it? His pride in his son had been awakened.
I doubt he’ll be able to remain such an oblivious, brainless father when he hears what I have to say... I thought.
“Your son equipped a military-use suit. More precisely, a prototype sixth-generation suit.”
The commander stopped laughing immediately and told me to contact his wife. He also instructed me that if his son tried to step out into the street, I was to use my own body to stop him.
How am I supposed to do that? What can I do while barehanded against an opponent who can easily destroy a tank? I thought desperately. But while I was frantically trying to think of a plan, his son disengaged the suit. It seemed a message from the son’s mother had gotten through to him.
He began cheerfully heading toward the house, and then stopped.
He was staring right at me.
I was so afraid, I thought my heart would stop. He might normally act like a good boy who always listened to what his mother said, but make no mistake, this was the type of boy who would use weapons within his own garden without hesitation. What would someone like that do after someone got in the way of their plans? Am I about to be killed...?
Fortunately, at that moment I was using optical camouflage that made me invisible to the naked eye.
It shouldn’t be possible for him to notice me... and he certainly has no way of knowing that it was me who contacted the commander. But can I really be sure of that? What if that military-use suit can intercept communications? No, it couldn’t possibly...
My thoughts were chaotic as I tried desperately to think of the best course of action. That’s when the son took one step toward me!
He’s going to kill me...
With that thought, I had given up all hope. But nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the son shrug his shoulders before entering the house.
Even though this was no battlefield, the thought that ran through my mind was, I’ve made it out alive.
The son had probably just wanted to scare me a little. However, I had been shamefully afraid. This was despite having made it through countless battlefields within the United Nations military special forces unit. I was almost certain the son had been thinking: Is that all you’ve got?
I was fine with that. I was content to stand and gaze at the clear sky, feeling truly alive.