The night’s emotional roller-coaster ride and constant running about while already weak from the wound took their toll on me. I was exhausted. I staggered through the door of my flat with an arm draped around Nanako’s shoulders. She was so cold that her teeth clattered nonstop, so we went straight to the bathroom. She reached for the buttons on my shirt with fingers she couldn’t even hold still.
"Come on, we've got to get you out of those wet bandages," she said, putting my welfare above her own.
I caught her hands and held them still. "A few minutes won’t make a difference to me. Our first priority is to get you warm. I'll get the shower going. It's a temperamental little beast."
Nanako nodded and stripped out of her clinging wet clothes while I fiddled around to get the shower to the right temperature, a difficult task at the best of times.
"Right to go." I held back the plastic floral-pattern shower curtain.
She slipped under the steaming hot water and sighed deeply with blissful relief as the water cascaded down her beautiful, lithe body. I stood there drinking in the sight of her, not quite comprehending that she was my wife.
"Don't just stand there." She held out a hand. "Get undressed and hop in."
I didn't need to be asked twice.
* * *
I was rudely awakened when the flat’s front door was kicked in. That I didn’t wake at the sound of boots outside indicated how soundly I'd been asleep. Lifting my head from the pillow to see the bedside clock, I saw that it was 4:30am and still dark outside. Nanako was lying half on top of me, soundly asleep, with her head on my shoulder, right arm across my chest, and her legs entwined with mine.
I struggled to sit up, waking Nanako in the process. The front door slammed shut and four men with guns rushed into the lounge-bedroom, blinding us with their torchlights.
“Got ‘em!” Lieutenant King declared. “Ethan Jones and Nanako, you are under arrest for sexual misconduct.”
“No, you’ve got this all wro…” I protested but got no further before one of the intruders smashed the stock of his assault-rifle into the side of my head.
* * *
I came to with a thumping headache that felt like a red-hot poker was stabbing me in the head. It took a moment to realise I was gagged and on my knees on the floor beside the bed with my hands cuffed behind my back. One intruder stood behind me, holding me upright by my hair and right shoulder.
The lights were on, and by twisting my head a little to the right, I saw Nanako kneeling beside me, similarly restrained. Her eyes were wide with terror. We were both shivering, for she wore only a t-shirt over her underwear, and me only my boxer shorts.
The intruders were all Custodians, but King was the only one in front of us. He stepped closer and leered down at me with undisguised loathing.
“You stupid fool, Jones! Did you seriously think you could cavort and sleep with this girl without us noticing? You’re dumber than I thought. Now the normal procedure after arresting you two is to take you to the magistrate in the morning, but we have a bit of a problem with that. The sentence for sexual misconduct is death by lethal injection, but in your case, Jones, the magistrate will transmute your sentence to several years hard labour. Since Nanako is from Hamamachi, he will probably just expel her from the town.” He knelt down and stuck his ugly face in front of mine. “And as I’m not happy with either of those options, my friends and I are going to administer the sentences you deserve right here and now. A bullet to the back of the head.”
I tried desperately to tell him that we were married, but the gag had been shoved so far into my mouth that I could only make muffled noises.
King stood and drew his pistol. He grabbed my pillow and folded it double. “I’m going to do her first so you can have the pleasure of watching her die, Jones. That’s only fitting, isn’t it? Payback for what the little cow did to my family’s honour.”
I flung myself back against my captor, but he jabbed me in the ribs with his right fist and drove the air out of my lungs.
King approached Nanako, but she struggled against her captor with all her might and tried to tell him something, but the gag made her words intelligible as well.
Not caring about our incoherent protestations, King walked behind Nanako, placed the pillow against the back of her head, and pressed the gun into the pillow. Although still winded, I fought desperately against my Custodian captor as well, trying to tear my head from his grip and kick behind me at the same time.
“Hold fire for a moment, Lieutenant,” the fourth Custodian said suddenly. Until now he had been standing quietly behind us, content to watch the proceedings, but now he reached out a hand to stay King. He was an Anglo-Australian, as tall as King, with a square jaw, and a very powerful build.
“What is it, Captain Smithson? You said I had your full support in this!” King complained.
“They’re wearing wedding bands.” The captain pointed out.
I stopped struggling and watched from the corner of my eye as King stepped back to look at our hands, clearly confused. “It’s a trick, Sir. It has to be. They weren’t wearing them on Friday.”
Nanako nodded furiously, desperately trying to speak over the gag.
“The girl’s trying to tell us something,” Captain Smithson said.
“Yeah, ‘don’t kill us,’” King snarled angrily.
“Doesn’t sound like that at all. Remove her gag.”
“But Sir,” King protested strongly.
“I know you have issues with her, but it isn’t going to hurt to hear what she has to say. Now take off the gag, and that’s an order.”
King untied Nanako’s gag and ungraciously yanked it from her mouth. As soon as it was out, Nanako twisted around to address the captain. Her words poured out like a waterfall as she relayed the entire story to the captain.
“What a load of codswallop,” King retorted. “Why didn’t you tell Ethan the ‘truth’ as soon as you saw him on Monday?”
“I didn't want to force the truth on him. I wanted to trigger his memories of me instead,” Nanako replied, though to the captain, not to King.
The captain indicated for the Custodian restraining me to remove my gag. “Is what she’s saying true, Jones?”
“Yes, Sir! When I went to the hospital yesterday I saw my hospital admission form from November 2120, and it stated that Nanako was my wife. That’s how I found out.”
“I see. And did she trigger any of your memories?”
“Yes, Sir. Since her arrival, I’ve had a number of memories of the time I was in Hamamachi. Last night I had a dream where I remembered meeting her for the first time. After things started falling into place, I confronted my father. He admitted he had asked the Custodians to have Nanako thrown out of Newhome.”
“Lieutenant King,” Nanako said before the captain could reply. “Don't be mad at me for stopping your sister’s marriage to Ethan. Blame Ethan's father his deception.”
"Can you prove any of this?" the captain asked. It sounded like he was beginning to believe us.
"Have a look at my file in the hospital," I replied. "You'll see I was checked into the hospital in November 2120 by Nanako Jones, with her relationship to me listed as 'wife'."
"You can also ask Councillor Okada," Nanako added. "He knew Ethan very well."
King suddenly had an epiphany. "Nanako, you said Jones went to Hamamachi."
"Yes, Sir."
"Did he join the Militia?"
"Yes, he did, though he was promoted to the Rangers soon afterwards," she replied. “He developed entirely new strategies for dealing with the Skel, and these were adopted by the Militia and Rangers.”
“And they were?” King prompted.
“Never fight them frontally but use stealth to get behind them and ambush them.”
I’d actually developed my anti-Skel strategies when I started foraging at the age of seventeen. As I was able to detect Skel ambushes using echolocation, it was from there I got the idea to sneak behind them and give them a taste of their own medicine.
“How did you fight the Skel previously?” the lieutenant queried.
“Upon encountering Skel, each squad broke into two teams. One team would provide covering fire while the other advanced.”
“I see,” King said, nodding his head. As the Custodians were primarily a police force, they probably hadn’t learned military tactics such as this.
Captain Smithson looked at Nanako and me, still handcuffed and kneeling on the floor and shivering uncontrollably. He sighed and addressed the Custodians who were restraining us. "Alright, uncuff Mr. and Mrs. Jones and let them go."