"In the interest of honesty, there is one more thing I need to tell you," I said with a grimace, looking over at Helen's tear-stained face. "I had a one-night stand with another officer a few days ago."
The pain in Helen's face was palpable. "You… Why?"
"Do you really want me to go into the details?" I asked.
Helen paused before saying, "No. Just, you really didn't remember me when you did it, right?"
"I didn't know about you at the time, yes." I answered succinctly.
The situation was messy, and I was interested in dispelling any confusion as soon as possible. I knew that the simplest route would be for me to just act like an adult and be honest with everyone involved. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the conversation with Garahau.
"Do you love her?" Helen asked quietly.
After a long pause, I said, "No."
"You'll have to choose," Helen said.
"Of course," I said with a nod. "I'm not that kind of guy, anyway."
"I know you aren't," Helen said, and a tear-stained smile lit up her face. She really was beautiful.
The sound of shattering glass filled the townhouse, and a dull impact sounded out a moment later. My revolver jumped to my hand, and I was at the window a moment later. Just as I peaked half of my head out the window, I saw the back of a car accelerating away at high speed.
"Wait here," I said as I raised my revolver to low-ready and stepped out of the bedroom to scan the rest of the house.
"Okay," Helen said fearfully.
It didn't take long for me to figure out what had happened. One of my home's front-facing windows had been shattered by a thrown brick. Honestly, I found it kind of cute. These cowards couldn't even bring themselves to attempt a proper assassination. The guy at the convenience store was committed, at least.
I extricated the brick from a scattered field of broken glass and checked the piece of paper tied to it. In all capital letters, the word "DEMON" had been written on the paper, and a strange demonic sigil had been inscribed next to it.
"Murmur?" I said to myself, reading the six letters lining the outside of the circle. It almost seemed like the person who had thrown the brick was more interested in cursing me than killing me.
"Sebastian, what happened?" Helen asked from upstairs.
"It's fine. Somebody just threw a brick through the window," I said, pocketing the piece of paper. The sigil was pretty cool, actually. I figured that I might have them paint it on my Zaku at some point.
"Somebody threw a brick through our window!?" Helen exclaimed.
"That's right," I said. "I've been meaning to bring it up, but we really need to get out of here. More than ninety percent of all humans in the Earth Sphere want me dead, and it's only a matter of time before they try to burn this house down."
"What should we do?" Helen asked.
"For now, we need to pack up," I said.
Helen got dressed in a practical outfit, and we packed up the rental car and my personal vehicle, an old muscle car. It was nauseatingly similar to the car I had owned in my previous life.
I followed Helen to a nearby ATM, and I pulled all of the money out of the military debit card before tossing it into a nearby trash can. I handed Helen $500 while I held onto the rest.
"What are you going to do now?" Helen asked.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to Zeonic HQ to talk to some people, then I'll check on Vultee in the hospital," I said.
"Zeonic HQ?" Helen asked with a slight twinge of anger behind her eyes. "Why did you just ask me to…?" The anger was quickly replaced by a deep sadness. "Right, you don't remember. I have an internship at Zeonic HQ, so I could take you there."
"That's lucky," I said. "Yeah, you could show me around."
"That's too bad about Heinrich," Helen said. "When was he injured? Oh yeah, how's Felix?"
It took me a moment to remember who Helen was talking about. "Hotchkiss is dead, and Vultee was injured trying to save Garma Zabi."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Helen said.
"Yeah," I said.
A long silence passed as the weight of my subordinates' lives weighed down on us.
"Anyway, I'll see you at Zeonic HQ tomorrow. It'll be like our first date," Helen said with a smile, and I could tell she wanted to cry.
That night, I stayed at a cheap motel that only cost $20 per day and paid the full $100 to get the room for five days. The bed was uncomfortable, and the room had an unsettling smell, but I knew that it was next to impossible for anyone to trace me to the motel. I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.
I woke up when the morning light struck my face. The light felt like sunlight upon my pale skin, but I knew that it was all artificial. Somewhere, there were massive lights that bathed Zum City in the light of day.
Standing in front of the cheap full-length mirror that came with my motel room, I dressed in my new captain's uniform. Somehow, the gray uniform under the black cloak actually managed to make me look more evil than my previous uniform. I hated this uniform the most by far, since I was literally the only soldier in Zeon who dressed in gray. Maybe I should have stapled a big piece of paper to my chest that said "SHOOT ME, I'M IMPORTANT" in big letters. Before I left the room, I threw my bomber jacket over the uniform in an attempt to conceal my identity a little bit.
After leaving the room, I found a public library nearby and found that the libraries did, in fact, have computers that were open to the public. It took me a while to get everything set up, but I was eventually able to find Amuro Ray's email address. I sent him the following email.
Dear Amuro Ray,
My name is Sebastian Dogwood. You may have heard of me, but I assure you that this message has nothing to do with military matters. I am calling you because of my interest in the modifications you have made to your Haro unit. It is my belief that the modifications you have made represent a significant advancement in artificial intelligence, and I would like to speak to you and your Haro unit via a video call.
Sincerely,
Cpt. Sebastian Dogwood