You're Under Arrest Fan Fiction ❯ The Siege ❯ Downtime and Explanations ( Chapter 2 )

The Siege

Chapter 2: Downtime and Explanations

By JagdPanther

"Okay, so can we get some answers here?" Miyuki Kobyakawa sipped at some tea.

Arleigh lowered a document he was reading and smirked. "Ah, maybe. Depends on what you want to know. For instance, I can't tell you the location of the President's emergency bunker at Fort Campbell, Kentucky."

Nakajima swirled his coffee around. "How about starting with why you just disappeared five months ago?" The others nodded.

The twenty-five year old American soldier sighed and placed the papers in a manila folder to his right. "I can do that. At least, I think I can. Wait, er, yeah, no, um, yeah! No, wait, yeah, no, yeah, no, no, no, wait, yeah…"

Natsumi could see that her friend was actually confused and not just playing. "Well?"

"Um, I think I got clearance to do that." Arleigh rifled through the papers in the folder quick. "Supply request…. OpOrders… Memo… Ah, here it is. Yeah, I can do that."

"Get on with it." The Chief was a bit flustered from the events of the past two days. First they had uncovered an arms cache in a stolen car in a private parking lot. The entire station was agitated by the appearance of about 32 SWAT-team grade weapons just sitting there in the middle of the precinct. The six of them who had been hostages had been alone in the Traffic Department of the Bokuto station the evening before Arleigh's rescue mission. Nine masked men had somehow entered the station and captured the officers. What really got the Chief was how no one noticed their exit, a loud and eventful affair involving him tripping down two flights of stairs. The bruises were killing him. They were sedated and taken to the compound. Somehow, no police officials knew where they were, but Arleigh and his U.S. Army Special Forces team did and mounted a successful rescue operation.

Arleigh gulped down some coffee. "Ah, good stuff. Not as good as Navy coffee, as much as I hate to admit that, but still damn good. The 160th Special-Operations-Aviation-Regiment [SOAR] boys make some good coffee." He wiped his mouth and leaned back in his chair. "Okay, here's the deal. When I came to Tokyo about two years ago, I was just out of training for the U.S. Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta."

Miyuki cut him off. "I've heard of that group. More commonly known as Delta Force, right?"

"One in the same. We're an extremely secretive counter-terrorist unit. We're so secretive that the Department of Defense doesn't even acknowledge that we exist. Delta Force is the best America has. As far as I'm concerned, in the world, we're only second to the British SAS. And I say that only out of respect for the unit that we were modeled after back in the 1960s and 70s. Now, my mission two years ago was a deep cover op designed to systematically search for and destroy terrorist organizations within Japan. Coincidentally, most were based around the Tokyo area. Over the course of the year and a half I was here, my team and I were able to destroy twenty-five groups. You remember all those supposed `gang wars' that happened in the city? Those were all my team raiding group buildings. Some were killed, some taken into custody and interrogated and now spending time in lovely Guantanamo Bay Naval Base."

Ken looked up. "I remember those. I responded to a few of them. You guys didn't leave much left. We barely ever found shell casings from weapons other than those the gangs were carrying."

Arleigh nodded. "Yeah, we have a system for collecting casings. I mean, we're a highly secretive group. God forbid someone identifies us even as Americans to begin with because we're using American weapons."

"But those were just gangs, right? What did they have to do with terrorists?" asked Ken.

"Good question. You'd be surprised how many international connections most of the upper level gangs in the city had. Some groups were pure terrorist based here; others had stuff going on within the city like typical gangs. Turf wars and stuff like that. About five gangs had connections with some of the extremists down in Indonesia and the Philippines. It's not a secret that we run counter-terror ops there. They thought they could come up here to Japan and be safe from the reach of our Spec Ops. Obviously not."

Aoi spoke next. "I have to ask… The raid over on Pier 21 in the harbor, that was you? How did you pull that off? I was listening to the dispatcher during that and there were units on scene before the shooting even stopped."

"Ah, Pier 21. That was fun. Hey, that rhymed. Anyway, that was pretty nice. Now, we had authorization to pull the chain on just about any U.S. military unit in the country. How we pulled that one off was quite simple. That evening, we flew out to the U.S.S. Charlotte, SSN 766, in a chopper. It was a Los Angeles-Class Nuclear attack sub hugging the coast of the island on its way to Yokosuka, its port-of-call for the following morning. We boarded around eight that evening and milled around the ship until midnight. I know how to work SONAR so I was killing time in the SONAR department on the sub listening to Japanese trawlers head in from the days' fishing. Around midnight we surfaced about four klicks, uh, klicks is slang for `kilometer,' from the pier, got onto a couple zodiac boats, and raced in. Climbed up the pier walls and raided the joint. We got some good intelligence that night. They had funding reports for their organization just lying around. Grabbed that stuff, which we later handed over to the National Security Agency who shut down the accounts and arrested the people who funded the group. We were compromised and had to fight our way back out to the pier. Took about twenty minutes to make our way around all the stacks of cargo containers and through the other warehouses. You guys showed up as were making our last push for the boats. Sped back to the Charlotte, got onboard around three in the morning. We pulled into harbor a few hours later. Donned lowly Seaman uniforms and made our way off the boat with the sailors heading to the red light district." He smiled. "I spent the rest of the morning getting wasted with the sub's skipper and XO. I guess the Chief-of-the-Boat had to hold her down while we were tossing back cold ones. That was a quality mission. Get real valuable intel and get drunk."

Natsumi raised an eyebrow. "I remember that. You didn't show up to the station until, like, three that afternoon. You were still a little woozy. The head of the Investigative Division wanted to kill you."

Arleigh laughed and tried to hide his embarrassment. "Yeah, that was pretty bad."

"That still doesn't explain your disappearance," quipped Miyuki.

"I was getting there." The American winked. "About four months ago, our mission got compromised by someone inside the Japanese government. I cannot stress just how few people in the government knew we were operating here. Not even the PM knew. So, someone inadvertently leaked our mission to a colleague who started asking too many questions so we scrapped the mission. Unfortunately, we weren't finished. We still had two more groups to go. Now, part of the reason why my cover was as a cop was so we could use the entire police force as our intelligence lackeys. I'd come in to work, say that I heard something through the grapevine about such and such a gang and y'all would go scurry around town and bring me back whatever you found. Mysteriously, shortly thereafter, a group would come in and wipe out the gang. Now, I wasn't the only deep cover. The rest of my team had deep cover identities. Some were bankers, accountants, advisors in JSDF, engineers, etc. Each had a specific job. The bankers and accountants were our money spies. They traced funding in and out of groups we were after. The advisors in JSDF got us some nice armored vehicles to use in a couple raids. My two engineers worked for the city planning department and tracked where gangs were located and got us floor plans for buildings we raided, sabotaged power lines, cut gas lines, planted microphones, and generally disrupted gang HQs right before we raided them.

"Usually the CIA does deep cover stuff, but we in the military are not fond of the boys and girls from Langley at all. Remember I said I had authorization to pull the chain on any military units in and around Japan like with the submarine? Well, they wouldn't let the CIA do that so a military unit like Delta Force was deployed instead. Unfortunately for us, if a CIA op was discovered, well, tough kazubies. The CIA does that stuff all the time so the Japanese would probably say get the hell out of our country, fume for a while, and forget it. Now, a pure military operation on foreign soil outside the knowledge of even the Prime Minister, most of the cabinet members, and almost every provincial governing member would be viewed far worse than a CIA operation. So we had to get the hell out of Japan before that particular official asked the wrong question, or rather, the right question, and our cover would be really blown, we'd get arrested, and the whole country would be coming down on us. Now, I've been back for about a month now with my team. We're finishing our mission. One of the groups we left unchallenged was actually finished off by your own SWAT team. Kind of makes me wonder if going after them would've been a waste of time or not if a five-man SWAT unit could take out twenty guys and arrest forty. Not exactly sure what kind of terrorist group they were if they were that weak. Now, this other group we left unchallenged is the one that got y'all the other night. The only reason we even knew about you getting captured was because one of my guys was tailing the people who got you. He radioed in, we got a spy satellite tracking the truck you were in, located the compound, and planned a rescue mission."

"All I can say is… wow…." Yoriko just stared at Arleigh. "And thanks…"

"Hey, not a problem. Just doing my job."

Miyuki didn't look very happy. "You still lied to us. You lied to everyone."

Arleigh covered his face and rubbed his temples. "Out of everyone here, I expected you to understand this the most, Miyuki. You know that I couldn't have just walked into NHK, got on the air and say `Hey! I'm an American military officer here to kill off terrorists!' flash a thumbs-up and walk away. It doesn't work that way. Honestly, what should I have done?"

"Well, for one, let more government officials know so you wouldn't have to turn tail and run away when someone `accidentally' found out. And on that line, who did know? You speak as if at least some higher ups knew."

"Oh, really? Tell more? That's the point of deep cover op. The less people who know, the better. A couple cabinet members knew. On the provincial level, only the local governor knew. Some parliament members knew. Some military officers knew in case we needed their assistance. Not many more people. I'm not exactly sure why I'm even authorized to tell you all this after the fact. I guess since you almost became the guards' personal toys and since you are on the investigation about the arms cache, command gave me the go ahead to tell you."

"I guess not. But…"

Arleigh rolled his eyes. "But nothing. Hey, look, I'm sorry I deceived y'all, but that's what I had to do to succeed. I really enjoyed working with you. Outside of business, I was the real, everyday Arleigh Rivera, not the under-cover Arleigh. And, yes, I admit, it's weird that I was undercover as myself. Sort of. Kinda. Not really. Ah, hell. Anyway, after we take down this last group I'll probably be reassigned."

"Where? Will we ever see you again?" Natsumi looked genuinely sad. It was sort of obvious to everyone that she had had feelings for Arleigh when he was a detective at the station.

"Where? Probably the other side of the world. No joke. We usually never go to even the same hemisphere we operated in. Except in this special case. As for seeing me again? Yeah, I'll probably stop into the station this week to say hi. I've already worked up some BS reasons for having resigned on less than two days notice and disappeared. After that, I should have the location of the last strongholds of this group. They're actually quite big. We estimate their numbers around a thousand and a half, but they're weakly organized except for their upper echelon like those guys who got you. Once we eliminate their command structure, they'll fall apart and that threat should die. Then it's `Mission Accomplished,' and good bye to Japan. Next stop, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a few weeks of leave, then reassignment to some place around the world. Maybe Peru. Or maybe Chile. It's really nice there this time of year. Or I could get shipped out to some desolate wasteland in Eastern Europe." Arleigh visibly shuddered.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"It's open." Arleigh spun around in his chair.

Jones poked his head in the doorway. "Sir? Can I see you for a moment?"

"There's a Sergeant out here from the 160th SOAR who'll get you ready to go back home." The Lieutenant got up and walked out, shutting the door behind him. "What is it, Sarge?" The glum expression on the man's face immediately killed Arleigh's smile.

"We were going over some of those documents you picked up at the camp. Did you look at them yet?"

"No, why?"

"You're going to want to see them right now."

>

>

>

After Arleigh left, the Chief was the first to speak. "Has anyone considered how we're going to explain all this when we get back?

Everyone responded no.

"Well, I don't think we can tell them that Arleigh is in on this." Miyuki got a few looks. "Yes, okay, I know I just seemed mad that he lied but I do respect the position he's in and I don't want to do something that could get him hurt."

The Chief nodded. "Exactly my thoughts. Now, if we leave relatively soon we should get back to the station by about..."

Natsumi interjected quickly. "No, no way. I'm going home and I'm sleeping until tomorrow. I am not going back to work after this crap. No, sir. Not a chance."

Aoi and Yoriko agreed.

Ken spoke up next. "If we leave soon, we could get back by two o'clock. We'd all just be late for work. I wasn't even supposed to be in this morning so I can just say I overslept."

"Lucky you, Nakajima." Natsumi rolled her eyes.

"Just a thought."

After pouring some more coffee from a container to his left, the Chief motioned to forestall any more comments from anyone. "Sorry, Tsujimoto, but we're going to the station. I say we go in and say we were captured. At least maybe our station will get more funding in the future to beef up security after this instance. I'm still furious that they weren't noticed. As for how we were rescued? Well, we were let go after they realized we were of no use, being the lowly traffic police that we are. How does that sound?"

No one objected, and they spent the next twenty minutes pounding out details for when they were questioned by the investigations unit. Small details included their lack of knowledge as to the location of the camp. Simple, they were blindfolded on the way there, which they had been. The only things they had to make up were getting released in the city near the station that afternoon without any money, weapons, or cell-phones and having to walk to the station. It was a very crude plan, but it would hold up.

Miyuki walked over to the door and opened it to see an American enlisted man standing across the hall. "Sergeant?" she said in her best English.

"Yes, ma'am?" came the reply in flawless Japanese. "Please, speak Japanese."

"Oh, thank you. Yes, Lieutenant Rivera said that you could arrange transportation for us back into the city?" `Are all American soldiers taught Japanese? Jeez, every one of Arleigh's men spoke it and so does this guy,' thought the police officer. She didn't know that Arleigh had handpicked his team partly for their language skills.

"Yes. I can't take you to the station directly, but I can get you into the general vicinity. Operational orders, sorry."

"Oh, that's not a problem. In fact, that would be better."

"Okay, sit tight and I'll be right back. I just need to go secure a van from the motor pool."

"Thank you, Sergeant." Miyuki smiled as the man walked away.

"Not a problem, ma'am," he called back.

By two ten in the afternoon, the officers were walking into the Bokuto Police station. There had been a search going on for almost eighteen hours for the missing six. Apparently, their exodus had been noticed and a search began right away. The questioning began immediately by everyone around, but soon it was limited to a sort of interrogation by several detectives. All six were questioned together so the story they had created for their return to the world held up. The investigation into the arms cache now expanded to the officers' capture. However, they had all missed one detail, and Natsumi was the first to think of it during the interogation.

`What if they find the camp where we were held? I don't think there was anything left to suggest we were there. Except for the six chairs, it should just look coincidental, right? Crap. This is all going to come back at us. I'll never work again…'

Natsumi didn't realize just how hard and vicious their escapade would come back at all six of them, and at countless others who seemingly were uninvolved with the actions of the past day.

>

>

>

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS: Bravo26Flashpoint@yahoo.com

6