Chapter 7

Narita International Airport, Tokyo, Japan May 23, 2031

"This way," said the detective more sharply than necessary, tugging on Nariko's upper arm. She stumbled as she complied, saying nothing. The man's anger and hatred radiated off of him in waves. He hadn't spoken a single word to her that wasn't an order. He didn't have to. She'd heard enough of those words from the police who'd been a constant presence for the last three days. She was a murderer. She'd tried to murder a cop. She had embarrassed Japan on the world stage.

She agreed with everything that they were saying. She was a murderer. She hadn't known the last man she slashed was a cop. But, she'd certainly tried to kill him. Her case had been all over the international news for nearly three months. She hoped the media would lose interest in her once she enlisted. At least, they should have less access to her.

Even though she agreed with the police's characterization of herself, Nariko was getting tired of their opprobrium. Her shoulders ached from being led everywhere in handcuffs. She had bruises on her upper arm from being grabbed repeatedly, even though she hadn't given anyone the slightest bit of trouble. More to the point, she'd volunteered for a suicide mission and spared someone else the duty. She wished they would hand her over and be done with it already.

Instead, they'd kept her in prison for ten weeks. The first eight, she'd been focused on learning enough to take the Service Exam. That had been Maiko Umihara's doing. The lawyer had insisted it would be an injustice to give her the exam unprepared. If Nariko hadn't been in the Shomben Yokosho that night, she would have had to take the exam within the next two years anyway. In all likelihood, she would still have been unprepared. No one had spoken to the injustice of that.

So, she'd spent six weeks learning to read Japanese, both Kanji and Hiragana, then two weeks on basic mathematics. The last two weeks had been much more useful than the first six. The "test" had actually been a series of games and puzzles in symbolic logic. There had been no words at all.

Since she took the test, she'd been in a limbo state. She'd been held in a special part of the prison and rarely seen the other inmates. No one came to see her. She was left alone most of the day with her books, children's primers on the written word. She was exercised, fed, and forgotten.

Three days ago, she'd been transferred to a special prison specifically put aside for criminals who had volunteered to serve with the Qiin. It was run by regular police, men who had taken every opportunity to remind her that she was particularly loathsome.

This morning, they'd finally been loaded onto a bus and transferred to the airport for transport to Victoria Station on Africa. Nariko didn't know where Africa was except that it was supposedly far away and would take many hours to reach by plane.

The police had taken one last chance to single Nariko out for special treatment. As the other inmates had been led to the gate to load onto their plane, this stern-faced detective had led her off to a separate holding area. Now, she could hear the tumult of the media waiting right outside the walls of the secure area.

She braced herself. Nariko didn't like media attention. So far, she'd avoided the worst of it by simple refusing to speak to anyone she didn't have to. Now, she would do the same. As long as she kept her head down and watched where she place her feet, she should be able to get past them one last time.

"Morioka Nariko?" a woman's voice asked. Nariko looked up, ready to keep her mouth shut. Her first impression was that the woman was gaijin—blonde and pretty with a Westerner's curves. A faint smirk passed Nariko's lips. This woman wouldn't be the first to try to question her in a language other than Japanese. Why anyone assumed she spoke another language was a mystery to Nariko. She barely spoke Japanese.

It took only a moment for her smirk to fade. Nariko realized that there was something artificial-seeming about the woman. Her skin was perfect and regular. Her hair was all one color and fell straight down past her shoulders. In case that wasn't enough to identify her, she wore the gray, silver, and black uniform of the Qiin Planetary Guard.

"You can't be back here," said the detective sharply. "This is a secure area."

The Qiin ignored him and repeated Nariko's name, still in the form of a question. Nariko nodded, bowing her head, "Yes."

That got her another nod, "Come with me, please. We've got transport waiting for you."

Nariko glanced at the detective, who had been gripping her arm harder since the Qiin woman showed up. He squeezed it tighter still, "This woman is my charge. No one notified me of..."

"I'm informing you now, Officer." She tilted her head like a cat watching a small prey animal. "Miss Morioka is a member of the Qiin armed services. Release her."

Nariko realized two new things at once. The woman spoke flawless Japanese. She also towered over both Nariko and the detective by more than a full head. Even so, the detective held his ground and kept his grip on her, "I have orders to bring this woman through the concourse to her gate. The press is waiting for her."

The Qiin woman pursed her lips, "That is part of why I'm here. My oihn doesn't want the spaceport turned into a media circus and would rather not start shooting reporters who refuse to respect the sovereignty of our places. I would think someone here would have the sense to do the same, but that doesn't appear to be a common commodity here." She indicated the handcuffs with a dismissive wave, "Take those off. Morioka Nariko is an officer in the Qiin military now. She's coming with me."

The man shook his head, tugged on Nariko's arm, and tried to walk past the Qiin, "You can talk to my commander when we reach the gate. I have..."

Things happened lightning-quick then. There was a sound like a knife cutting through air and a faint smell of ozone. Nariko felt herself falling backwards and braced for a fall she couldn't brace herself against. The Qiin woman caught her shoulders. The detective's grip on her arm slipped away. Nariko lost track of the man because the Qiin woman had suddenly sprouted shining, silver wings. They were huge, filling the secure area from wall to wall. The overhead light flickered off of them. Even so, Nariko could see individual feathers moving against each other.

The Qiin had literally become an avenging angel. She glowered down at the police officer and said in a loud, firm voice, "Detective, you are now one heartbeat away from being involved in a direct, government-sponsored action against the Qiin. If you do anything other than find your key, unlock these handcuffs, and walk out of my sight, I will take you into custody and we can see if your government even wants you back. Am I clear?"

The man nodded emphatically. With shaking hands, he extracted a key ring from his pocket, selected a key, and unlocked Nariko's cuffs. The whole time, the Qiin glowered at him.

Finally, he turned and tried to leave. The woman's wings had completely blocked him in, though. There was no way to get out the door without pushing past her. He stood in front of her, quivering with anxiety.

"Forgive me," she said quietly to the Qiin. "You have him trapped."

The Qiin woman looked at Nariko, nodded, and folded her wings back far enough to let the man past. He didn't wait for them to fold all the way back, but bolted at the first sign of daylight. He brushed past one wing on his way out.

As he did, he let out a cry and gripped one hand in the other, but kept running. Nariko caught a quick flash of blood. The Qiin gasped at the same time. Nariko looked at her with concern. The Qiin's eyes were closed and stayed closed for a few seconds before she smiled and opened them again.

"I'm Suah Archangel," she said. Her wings seemed to fold in on themselves over and over again until they disappeared behind her back. "You're Ah-human Morioka Nariko. I didn't expect that to escalate so far. Are you ready to go?"

Nariko rubbed her wrists, "I am. May I ask you questions?"

Archangel gave her a smile, "Of course. We have a long flight ahead of us, but you can start now if you like. Please walk as you ask, though. The longer we stay, the greater chance there is that I will have to kill someone to complete my mission." She led Nariko back the way she'd come earlier, "This way, please."

After a few dozen steps, Archangel led Nariko through a door marked "Authorized Personnel Only." On the far side was a stairway that led down to the tarmac. Nariko would have started in on her questions then, but it was too loud. A small, stub-nosed Qiin transport sat only a few hundred meters away. As they approached, one smooth area of the transport's wall detached from the fuselage, swung down, and became a stairway. A minute later, they were inside the craft with the steps withdrawn and the cabin sealed up.