Chapter 42

Misato felt as if she was on display in a zoo somewhere as she stood at attention before Commander Ikari and Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki to deliver her report. This despite the fact that, on account of all the preparations being made for NERV's first combat alert in months, only a small part of the staff had gathered in the briefing room. Not many people were needed—from these select few, the necessary orders would trickle down the ranks with practiced efficiency. The small audience provided little comfort.

"As of 03:49 hours the target, which the UN has unofficially classified as the 18th Angel despite MAGI's inability to obtain a lock on the energy pattern, began moving from its original position over the remains of the Chinese Branch outside Beijing. Our current tracking data predicts that the target will reach Tokyo-3 in 14 hours. The UN has already asked us to live up to our agreement, namely the A-11 directive, and engage the target directly."

"How swiftly the sheep come running back to the shepherds, don't you think, Fuyutsuki?" Gendo Ikari said from behind his hands, laced together as usual in front of his face. He was sitting at his illuminated console.

"Indeed," the Sub-Commander said. He stood stiffly at attention behind his superior officer. He turned his head to Misato. "Has the UN authorized NERV's freedom of action as per the A-11 directive?"

"Yes," Misato said. "NERV has been guaranteed the use of any and all measures to stop the target. This includes the UN Army, the JSSDF and all other equipment that might be required."

The significance of that statement was not lost on any of the people present and a murmur started in the half-shadows surrounding them. The UN had spent most of the last few months hampering NERV's activities. Without Angels to fight NERV was a money pit in the eyes of the bureaucrats and bean-counters, and therefore, predictably, anathema to anyone who had to worry about budgets. Equipment had been cut as well as personnel. NERV had ended up scraping by as best it could on what it had, but the cost on its people was more than Misato cared to consider.

Now, in a single instant of utter destruction and death, this latest threat had reversed that trend. Misato felt awful that NERV's relevance—its very survival—was directly tied to people's deaths, but it was the truth and denying it would do nothing to prevent more lives from being lost.

"Very well," Ikari said in his usual deliberate tone. "Major Katsuragi, what is NERV's current defense capability?"

Misato knew that he already had the answer. He wouldn't have asked her otherwise. And although this was the sort of thing she had been trained for, now that she was forced to do it again she realized that she hadn't missed it.

People are going to die no matter what I do, she told herself, maybe even people I love. The thought left a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Not very good, sir," Misato said. "As you know, Unit-00's self-destruction detonation and the third Lake Ashino have eliminated many of our deployment routes. This has greatly hampered our ability to deploy the Eva effectively over an extensive area. We can, however, place the Evas at strategic locations in advance to intercept the target at our discretion."

"As always, it is to our advantage that the Angel has decided to come looking for us," Ikari said. "The timing is of its choosing, the place is of ours. That is perhaps the only advantage we truly have."

Strange how no one ever seemed to find that odd, Misato wondered. Well, no one but Kaji. That ended badly for him.

"And it is an advantage I intend to fully use, sir." she said.

"Do you have a plan, Major Katsuragi?" Fuyutsuki asked with mock surprise.

"That is what I get paid for, sir." Misato could not believe she was playing the faithful lackey again. It was as if she was watching herself from another plane of reality, standing here, once again acting like a dog awaiting her master's orders. But what other options did she really have? It was better to be inside NERV's tent pissing out than outside pissing in. She needed access, and this was the price.

"Then out with it, Major Katsuragi, we do not have all day," Commander Ikari said.

Beside Misato, Ritsuko gave a nod of her head and a holographic display flashed to life behind them showing a 3-dimensional layout of the Hakone region. Weapon emplacements were shown as tiny yellow triangles on the map. Eva deployment routes were highlighted in both red and blue to illustrate their readiness status like a jagged spider web of tangled lines. The red unavailable routes far outnumbered the blue available ones. The display then zoomed in on the lower-left quarter of the grid, indicating the south-western approach to the city, codenamed Sierra Two on the map.

Here the positions of the UN and JSSDF units were marked by green rectangles, each with small text below the rectangle to designate the unit identifications.

"I plan to have the UN Army stretched out across the northwest to intercept the target as soon as it reaches Japanese air space," Misato explained. "That will give us a chance to analyze the strength of its AT Field, probe for weaknesses and keep the UN busy and out of our way. This will be only token resistance, of course. I don't think that we should expect any damage to be done to the target, but it'll be good for the UN's prestige to be actively involved. As for the actual interception, Unit-00, in my view the only truly combat-effective Evangelion we currently have, will take position five miles southwest, behind the UN lines and engage the target with long-range firepower. I have decided to borrow one of the new high-density plasma rifles the SSDF has been developing for us, which I will requisition myself if necessary."

"So you plan to use an experimental weapon in this critical situation?" Fuyutsuki asked. His tone was not exactly critical, but it carried his point perfectly.

"The SSDF has assured me that their rifle can penetrate even the strongest of AT Fields; at least, the strongest we've encountered so far. This is the only alternative to using the positron rifle again."

"Why are you only proposing to use long-range weapons, Major Katsuragi?" Commander Ikari inquired. "Have you forgotten that the Evangelion is a weapon of close-combat?"

"No, sir, I haven't. But I believe that we must avoid close-quarters combat if possible. Unit-00 has not gone through a proper testing phase yet. We don't know how it will handle—"

"I will permit you to requisition any type of weaponry that you believe will assure us the success of this operation, but it would be irresponsible not to anticipate the need to be ready for close-quarters combat."

"I understand, sir," Misato said. "But we would be doubly irresponsible if we were to overestimate Unit-00's combat status. There hasn't been time for a weapon's test, and Rei isn't exactly at peak fitness either. Anticipating CQC is one thing, but seeking it out in the first place is not a winning strategy."

Of course, there was more to it than that, but bringing up her concerns over Rei's safety and the potential for disaster if it came to hand-to-hand combat wouldn't change the fact that they needed her out there. And Rei was probably fitter than Shinji, if only psychologically. Asuka was out of the question as far as Misato was concerned.

No, it had to be Rei.

Her superiors mulled over her words carefully, as she had expected. These weren't stupid men, nor were they deaf to counsel.

"What contingency measures have you planned?" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki asked, clasping his hands behind his back. "There are still N2 weapons in stock, are there not?"

"Yes, but I have no reason to believe they would be effective," Misato answered. She'd already considered that strategy, and discarded it. "Sure, they make a nice explosion. That's about it."

"I see. Please continue your briefing."

"We simply don't have much in the way of effective reserves," Misato said. She leaned forward over the rail in front of her console. Behind her the display changed and showed schematics of all three Evangelion units. "Unit-01 will be placed on standby, just in case Unit-00 is knocked out of combat. Unit-02 will also be on standby, but in its current condition it won't be of much help. If it comes down to using Unit-02, we'll be as good as dead." She turned to the blonde doctor. "Ritsuko?"

"Unit-01 is more than capable of holding its own," Ritsuko said with practiced matter-of-factness. "I believe. However, the S2 organ remains untested and we cannot trust that it will perform well in hand-to-hand combat. And if it goes berserk it might pose a greater threat than this new Angel. That is assuming the S2 engine can even be started conventionally, which is a possibility we haven't fully explored. Theoretical supposition aside, we don't want another Dirac Sea incident. It simply isn't safe."

Misato grimaced against her will. The mere thought of putting Shinji in harm's way made her feel sick, but what else could she do? The Evangelions were meant as weapons and the Children as warfighters. Ultimately that was their reason for being here. And there was only one way to keep Shinji safe—Rei had to destroy the Angel.

Having to risk her life in exchange for Shinji's felt nearly criminal, and certainly wrong. Misato couldn't reconcile such a choice except to tell herself that it wasn't really a choice in the end. Someone had to be out there, and Rei was better than Shinji.

"What about the civilians?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"The local authorities already know what to do," Misato said. "We've notified the council, but Nakayima is nowhere to be found. However, ultimate power lies with us in these matters. We will move up to Level 1 alert once the target enters Japanese airspace."

"I would not think that the Ministry of the Interior would want to be left out of the action," Fuyutsuki said, though he did not seem surprised.

"Nakayima is probably halfway to Kyoto by now," Misato replied sarcastically. She felt good saying that. After all of the trouble the government had caused NERV, she was more than entitled to have a little fun at their expense. And the criticism was not necessarily unwarranted.

If they did not wholeheartedly agree with the joke, her superiors at least did not object to it.

"This is all very well, Major Katsuragi," Ikari said after a moment. "I see no reason to object to your planning, but I strongly caution you against failure." His voice remained unemotional, as always, but it carried a hidden implication that Misato caught at once.

Failure equals death. Do not fail.

He did not have to say it. The seriousness of the situation was etched on his face—as it was on all of the faces Misato could see gathered around her.

When Commander Ikari rose out of his chair, Misato understood that she was being dismissed. She saluted, then turned on her heels and was almost out the door of the briefing room before Fuyutsuki called out.

"Doctor Akagi, if you would please remain behind."

Misato stopped abruptly, turning to face him. She ignored the odd look on Ritsuko's face. "Sir, with all due respect, if I am to assume that I have your confidence, I can't be left out of the loop."

It was an impulse, but she hoped he got her meaning. No secrets, not now.

Ikari looked at her with unflinching, hard eyes from behind thick glasses. "I have every confidence in you, Major. I merely need to discuss some extra-operational details with the doctor. With all due respect."

Misato chewed on that and did not like the taste it left in her mouth. His was a perfectly acceptable answer as far as operational necessity was concerned. There were things in this organization that didn't require her input, after all, and they didn't necessarily have to be of interest to her. She was just becoming paranoid after being kept in the dark over so many things, by people she was supposed to trust.

They wouldn't tell her everything, not even if she knew the right questions to ask, but she wanted to believe that, with thousands of lives snuffed out in an instant, even Commander Ikari wouldn't mess around with the cloak and dagger stuff at a time like this. He wouldn't jeopardize everything just so he could keep his secrets. Misato believed she knew him well enough to be certain of that.

"Excuse me, sir," she said to the Commander, then she turned and gave Ritsuko a look of warning.

The rest of the staff had already left by the time Misato stepped out. She called Hyuga and ordered him to assemble the rest of the bridge crew and the respective Eva support crews—all three—in the lower briefing room, and issued a general readiness order for everyone else.

As she walked into the elevator and the doors closed behind her, Misato looked at her watch. Dawn would not come for another hour. Suddenly, she wished she could go topside to look at the sky one last time. She dismissed the thought as quickly as it came. Everyone would be waiting for her below, and nerves were frayed enough without her taking a detour.

I hope you are proud, Kaji, Misato told herself. This is me being responsible.

In a few more hours she might get a chance to ask him in person. But not if she could help it.