As I walked out into the parking lot, I put another cigarette between my lips and lit it up with my steel lighter. The first pack of cigarettes I had bought the day before now sat empty in my pocket. In my previous life, I had never been a pack-a-day kind of guy, but the stress of the past few days had me breathing smoke like a fish gulping water.
The third man of Kycilia's black-bag team stood next to my convertible with his hands in his pockets. As I approached the car, I waved over to the man and said, "How's it going, Renault? It seems like we're gonna be coworkers from now on."
With a cold smile, Renault said, "That's better than the alternative. Here's your keys." He handed me my key ring. "Your weapons are sitting on the passenger's seat."
"Thank you kindly," I said before getting into the car and driving out of the parking lot of Deikun Hall.
My next destination was the military hospital by the space port. I had to check if Vultee and Aiko were awake yet. At the very least, I wanted to say goodbye before I left for the peace talks on Earth. As I drove, I was left with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, huh?" I muttered to myself. Was there even a path to peace available? Sure, I was going to attend the peace talks, but none of my superiors were interested in actually ending the war at this juncture. Zeon was only interested in setting some ground rules so that the war didn't end with literally every human dying.
There was one path to peace, but I dared not speak it out loud. The Antarctic Treaty could be the document that ends the war once and for all, but it would require Gihren Zabi to die within the next few days. Dozle was the logical choice for the next Sovereign, since he technically outranked Kycilia, and he would surely be willing to end the war if we got some financial reparations out of the Federation.
Zeon was sitting on a knife's edge. On one side was Gihren's successful assassination. This would result in Zeon taking on its most effective form. We would be able to keep our technological advantage and do away with the Supreme Commander's unnecessary cruelty. On the other side was civil war. If the other Zabis attempted to kill Gihren and failed, Zeon would become its own greatest enemy. The only question now was which side Zeon would fall on.
After a few minutes, I reached the hospital. I left my weapons in the car and entered through the front door.
"Are you carrying any weapons, sir?" the guard asked as I entered.
"No," I said, showing the guard my empty palms in a gesture of non-violence.
"Go on ahead."
I walked into the hospital and moved toward the wing that held Vultee and Aiko. That same blood-stained doctor from the night before sat at the nurse's station near the wing where my two subordinates were staying.
"Good afternoon, Captain," the doctor said with a yawn, looking up from the paperwork sitting in front of him.
"You're the doctor that's been treating my subordinates, yes? I just realized I don't know your name," I said.
"Nabokov," the doctor responded.
"Right. How are Aiko Yoshida and Heinrich Vultee doing, Dr. Nabokov?" I asked.
"Warrant Officer Yoshida is doing very well for a woman that underwent a field amputation less than 24 hours ago. It's funny, actually. I never would have guessed that exposure to vacuum would serve as a great cauterizing agent. We had to cut out all the dead tissue, but it was great at keeping her alive until we could get to her," Nabokov said casually. The man's flippancy toward my subordinate annoyed me.
Nabokov's expression darkened as he said, "As for Lieutenant Vultee, his injuries are much worse. He was struck with four pieces of shrapnel. One struck the muscle in his thigh, two struck his already-damaged arm, and one pierced his skull. I'm afraid that Vultee has sustained some damage to the frontal lobe of his right hemisphere. We won't know the extent of the damage until he wakes up from his coma, if he ever does."
"Vultee is in a coma?" I asked, exhaling as if I had been punched in the stomach.
"That's right. Out of respect, I won't sugar-coat this," Nabokov said, looking me in the eyes with a powerful intensity. "With his wounds, Vultee has a 40% chance of ever waking up again. Even if he does wake up, it is highly unlikely that he will regain the same mental acuity he had before his injury."
I let out a deep sigh. There was a 60% chance that Vultee was already dead. Quietly, I said, "I appreciate the honesty."
Walking into the large room filled with injured soldiers, I saw Aiko sitting up in her bed and Ramos in a chair next to Vultee's unconscious and bandaged form.
"Hey there, Captain," Ramos said with a muted smile on his face when he saw me enter the room.
"How are you doing, Aiko?" I asked, looking over at her.
"Never better," Aiko said with a tired smile. "They gave Ramos and me the Zabi star, so there's a silver lining."
She just had to lose her arm.
"They gave you the Zabi star too, Captain, if you haven't heard," Ramos said. "We're all 'knights of the Zabi family' now, whatever that means."
"When do you think they'll let you out, Aiko?" I asked.
"They said I can leave tomorrow morning as long as I have supervision," Aiko said. "I'll stay with my mother for a little while."
"I can drive you, if you want," I said.
"Thanks, I think I'll do that," Aiko said.
"Hey, uh, Captain," Ramos said. "Do you think we can talk in private for a bit?"
"Sure."
Ramos and I walked to an unoccupied part of the hospital. After making sure that we were alone, he said, "Did you hear? They're saying that the Supreme Commander put Degwin's flagship in that dangerous position. Vultee is in a coma because of that bastard Gihren."
"Shut up," I whispered angrily through clenched teeth, quickly scanning the hallway we were standing in. There could be microphones anywhere. "Who's saying this?"
"I don't know. People. I heard it from Wei," Ramos said.
"Just keep your goddamn mouth shut, Ramos," I said angrily. "I've been talking with the Zabis much more than I should. Something is going to happen, and it probably won't be good. No matter what happens, I need to know that you'll follow my orders no matter what they are. Got it?"
Ramos paused for a long moment. His teeth clenched, and his eyes opened wide with fear. Eventually, he opened his mouth and quietly spoke two words.
"Got it."