Sumio eased the door closed behind Mizuki as she left, then turned to the mess on the floor. One of the disadvantages of taking part in a clandestine operation was the fact that they couldn’t just page the janitorial staff. Of course, that did mean that some of the scientists here were being more careful not to make messes in the first place, so that was something good.

"I guess that could have gone a bit better," Masaki said, still sounding tired.

"Yes, it could have. But she has to get used to the realities of this war sooner or later," Sumio said, as he started to clean up the mess. "Better that she does it sooner, so it won’t be so much of a shock for her later."

"I know," Masaki sighed again. "I just sometimes wish I could protect them better. They’re really only kids, even after all they’ve been through."

"I know, Masaki. But, remember that even you can’t be everywhere at once, all right? You’re not immortal, nor are you indestructible."

"Believe me Sumio, I know that a lot better than you do," Masaki said, sounding rueful.

"Sorry. I guess this kind of conversation really would tend to remind one of one’s own mortality," Sumio said, nodding.

"I’ll second that," Masaki said, turning to lay on his side.

XxXxX

Dr. Balkus, after having gone over every scrap of hard data pertaining to the Lost Number Aptom, was sitting in one of the large throne-like chairs at the back of the lab. Dr. Balkus was fuming at himself; first and foremost for having been so careless as to reprocess Aptom so many times that the Lost Unit had ceased to be a Zoanoid and become something else altogether.

Then there was also the matter of whatever Commander Gyou was planning to do. Dr. Balkus knew that to derail the Commander’s plans would require him to know about them in the first place, but Gyou was proving to be better at operating in secret than the Twelfth Zoalord’s arrogance would have at first suggested. Whatever the Commander had in mind would no doubt be very dangerous if he was working this hard to conceal all evidence of it.

Maybe it is time that I had a look at those video records personally. Dr. Balkus stood up and walked back over to the large computer that sat on the other side of the small room where he had been sitting. The main records had been erased, yes, but Dr. Balkus knew more about computers than Commander Gyou had ever taken the time to learn. If there was a way to get those records back, then Dr. Balkus was going to find it.

As he went through the main files as well as the backups, Dr. Balkus found what he was looking for after only twenty minutes of work. Reconstructing both the video and the audio for this particular file took a bit of work, but Dr. Balkus was impatient to find at least something that would give him an idea of what their Twelfth Zoalord was planning. There was also something else, something that gnawed at the Second Zoalord’s mind like an annoying termite. Some familiar feeling that Dr. Balkus was at the moment strenuously trying to ignore.

It still did manage to distract him on occasion, though, but this kind of data recovery was something he had done often enough that he could afford to be a little unfocused. When the video was fully restored, including the sound that had been recorded, Dr. Balkus replayed it. What he saw surprised him, and the Second Zoalord did not like to deal with surprises.

"Murakami’s son? Still alive?"

Dr. Balkus watched as the small family drama played out on the large screen in front of him. The boy, Kenji, was left to stay on his own in the tent that Murakami had no doubt set up for him to inhabit. Dr. Balkus thought that Murakami was a fool to leave such a young child out in the forest this close to a Chronos processing facility without even some small measure of protection. Of course, it was possible that Murakami thought that hiding his son so close to this very facility was tantamount to hiding him in plain sight.

That plan had obviously backfired in spectacular fashion, but that still left the question of just what the Commander had done with Murakami’s son. There was no doubt at all left in Dr. Balkus’ mind that Commander Gyou was the one responsible for this Kenji Murakami’s disappearance. Now there was only the question of just what the Twelfth Zoalord had done with the boy. Killed him, that was the first thought that came to Dr. Balkus, given the way that the Commander evidently abhorred all things that dealt with the elder Murakami.

Dr. Balkus also had a marked antipathy for the man, since he had expected that Murakami would die just like all of the other prototypes he had used to finish off designing Commander Gyou’s Zoalord body. It was both annoying and somewhat gratifying to learn that it had been a Proto-Zoalord designed by Dr. Balkus himself that had managed to cause so much trouble for Chronos.

Somewhat gratifying because it had been one of his own designs that had survived for so long, annoying because the Proto-Zoalord had been attacking Chronos rather than joining up with them. A Proto-Zoalord that strong would have quickly found a place for himself within Chronos’ ranks. Perhaps Murakami would have even been given the chance to become a full Zoalord before his lifespan inevitably ended.

He would not have been one of the Twelve Overlords, but at least Murakami would have had a place within Chronos and a chance to live. Dr. Balkus was disconcerted by the fact that Murakami had decided to throw all of this away for some reason on a scheme for revenge that his own flawed biology had doomed from the start. But Murakami was not the issue at hand right now, his son was.

For a moment, Dr. Balkus considered confronting Gyou with the evidence of the Twelfth Zoalord’s treachery. Then, thinking better of it, Dr. Balkus decided to find another way to see what had happened to young Kenji Murakami. There had to be something that would give him at least some clue about what Gyou was planning.

The feeling of resonance and recognition came back then; even stronger for all that Dr. Balkus was determined to ignore it. It startled Dr. Balkus out of his contemplation, something that the Second Zoalord was not at all grateful for. What is this presence that I keep sensing? Dr. Balkus wondered, slightly agitated. Who could have this strong a telepathic signal that even I, the strongest telepath of the Human-born Zoalords, would not be able to filter it out? Could it possibly be…?

Dr. Balkus, deciding that finding out just who was sending out these strong telepathic waves was more important right now than finding out where Murakami’s lost son was, shut down the computer and turned away from it. He needed to focus right now.

XxXxX

Commander Gyou, who had been thinking about how just about everything was going his way right now, was also caught unawares by the psychic waves that were gaining strength the closer they came to Mt. Minakami. Gyou, since he was not anywhere near as experienced as some of the other Zoalords when it came to dealing with telepathy, was almost knocked unconscious by the overwhelming mental force.

What the hell is this?! Gyou demanded silently of no one. Is this Balkus’ work? I’m going to wring his sanctimonious neck for doing this to me! It was almost as bad as when the Relic had reacted to his Zoacrystal, but somehow worse this time since Gyou didn’t have any readily available explanation for why his Zoacrystal would be reacting now. After all, the Relic was at the bottom of the basement level, separated from him by several hundred layers of reinforced titanium, steel and concrete.

It was simply not logical to think that the Relic could be affecting him over so great a distance, especially since Shirai had said that the Relic had only activated that once in response to the Remover. So the only thing that made any sense at all was that Balkus was somehow doing this to him for the Second Zoalord’s own sick amusement. Gyou had not known that Balkus had even possessed a sense of humor, but he was starting to wish that he had never found out that particular fact.

Gyou felt once again that his head was slowly being crushed in a vice, and as had been the case during his experience with the Relic, Gyou just wanted the pain to stop.


 
 
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