"Do you have any weapons on you, sir?" one of Kycilia's goons asked.
"I left my revolver in the car, but I still have a knife in my front right pants pocket," I said casually. "Should I give it to you, or do you want to take it yourself?"
"You can just hand it to me," the same goon, the man standing in the passenger seat, said.
"Here you go," I said, handing the man in the passenger seat the butterfly knife.
"Can I have the keys to your car?" the man in the passenger seat asked.
"Sure," I handed him my keys.
"Thank you for your cooperation," the man said before taking my keys and leaving the SUV.
The large van began driving away once the man in the passenger seat left, leaving just me and two other men in the SUV. Based on their body language and unbuttoned jackets, I could tell that both men were carrying handguns under their shoulders. The man sitting in the back with me wore a left-handed holster, though I couldn't quite put a finger on how I knew that.
"We're sorry about this, Captain. We really do appreciate everything you've done for Zum City, but…"
"Orders are orders," I said, finishing the man's sentence. "Don't worry about it, man. I understand the job more than anybody, and I wanted to talk to your boss, anyway."
"Really?" the driver asked as if this was the most confusing thing he had ever heard. It must have been strange to hear that somebody wanted to talk to Kycilia Zabi.
"By the way, what are your names?" I asked with a forced smile. "I don't want to just call you guys 'driver' and 'guy in the back seat.'"
The guy in the back seat looked up at the driver, deferring to his seniority. Clearly, the driver had operational command of my kidnapping. After more than ten seconds of silence, the driver shrugged and said, "I'm Lieutenant Schneider, and he's Warrant Officer Douglas."
"Nice to meet you both," I said with a smile while I visualized how to kill them.
After a few seconds, I came to the conclusion that I would be able to disable both of them, but only if I struck first. Schneider and Douglas were trained killers who could line up a shot and kill me in about three seconds. If things went sideways, the only winning move would be to grab Douglas's handgun, shoot Schneider, and then shoot Douglas. That would only work if I took them completely by surprise, which was why I was acting so friendly.
"Is the third man going to bring my car to our destination?" I asked.
"Yeah," Schneider said. "Renault is making sure that we don't have to drive all the way back later. It will be a bit of a drive."
"I see," I said, leaning back in my chair and trying to look relaxed.
"Shouldn't we run through the checklist?" Officer Douglas said, prompting a reaction from Schneider.
"Right. Uh, Captain Dogwood, do you know what this is about?" Schneider asked.
"This is about the message I sent to Amuro Ray. Did the message go through, or did you guys intercept it?" I asked.
Douglas frowned noticeably, clearly unsettled by my awareness of the situation. His eyes twitched before he said, "You're right. Amuro Ray was…"
"Hold on," Schneider cut in. "You knew this would happen, Captain?"
"I know that Amuro Ray is the son of Tem Ray who was the student of Dr. Minovsky before the latter's death," I said. More importantly, I knew that Kycilia Zabi was paranoid enough to put everyone less than three degrees of separation away from Minovsky on a watchlist.
"If you knew that Amuro Ray was a person of interest, why did you send the message?" Schneider asked.
"As I said before, I wanted to talk to Kycilia Zabi," I said.
"You're playing a dangerous game, Captain," Schneider said quietly.
"I know."
Ever since the battle against Tianem Fleet, I knew that I would only be able to fulfill my objectives if I acted aggressively. In this case, I wanted to complete several of my objectives all at once (dealing with Amuro Ray, dealing with the Zabis, and creating the UMP), and that required me to go straight to the center of Zeon's problems. I also knew that Kycilia Zabi would only feel comfortable dealing with me if she felt that she had some leverage.
After about fifteen minutes of driving, it became clear that I wouldn't have to kill Schneider and Douglas. We were driving to Deikun Hall, the administrative capital of Zum City. In the original timeline, the party after the Battle of Loum was held there, though I figured the party would be canceled due to Degwin's death.
I entered through a side entrance and soon found myself in the office of Rear Admiral Kycilia Zabi. The office was opulently furnished with expensive stone and a giant translucent gem that served as a window. The gem was translucent enough to let light through but too opaque to see through with any accuracy.
After a few minutes, the woman herself, Kycilia Zabi, appeared. She wore the helmet of a high-ranking officer and a purple mask pulled over the lower half of her face. Long red hair tied up in a bun could be seen underneath Kycilia's helmet, and she carried a handgun on a holster at her hip.
"Greetings, Captain," Kycilia said with a snake's venom in her voice.
"Hello, Admiral," I said with a wide, fake smile.
"You already know the seriousness of your actions, yes? Despite that, you sought this meeting out. Well, you must think you're untouchable. No one could possibly hurt the Hero of Zeon, right?" Kycilia said with barely-concealed anger in her tone.
"I fear for my own life every day, ma'am," I said casually.
"You're a strange man, Captain," Kycilia said, and I could tell from her eyes that she was smiling. She grabbed the pistol at her side and pointed it at my head. "Either way, you must be reminded of your position. I could kill you right now, claim that you attacked me, and no one would think about it twice."
As the barrel of the handgun was trained on my forehead, I realized something. I felt no sense of danger from the gun. With complete certainty, I knew that the gun was unloaded. At the very least, there was no bullet in the chamber.
I really couldn't deny it any longer: I was a Newtype.