Nanami Kiryuu descended to the ground safely cradled in the arms of a tightly armored figure, the blonde looking severely annoyed with the sprinkling of ash and dirt that were still on her body. As the Hardsuit pilot gently set her down a figure burst from the watching crowd, racing forward to embrace her fiercely. "Are you all right?' Miki Kaoru demanded, his blue hair falling into his eyes. He looked her over anxiously, his lips pinched and eyes narrowed in anger. "I'm fine," Nanami gently reassured her husband, resting a hand on his arm then moving forward to gently embrace him. Drawing back after a moment she turned to look up at her burning office building and then urgently asked one of the nearby officers, "Did all my staff make it out?" The tall blonde nodded, her nametag reading Kisaragi. "They're fine," Honey nodded, "standard evacuation procedures got them out." Nanami puffed out a relieved breath, "I'm glad." With a somewhat more serious look, "Do we know who did it?" "I don't know yet," Miki admitted grimly. Keeping a arm around Nanami he turned towards the officer in charge and asked respectfully, "Ma'am?" Leona Ozaka sighed, her sandy brown hair restrained by her uniform cap, her blue police uniform crisp and neat. "This isn't official," she cautioned them, "but we got a notification 1.3 seconds after the blast by one of the Isolationist groups." "Makes sense," Nanami grimly agreed, "amoung Kiryuu holdings are starship construction and colony organizers." Leona looked at her thoughtfully, "Any previous threats?" "Sorry, no," Nanami answered promptly, "the closest thing we've gotten would be some Isolationist propanda over the global-net." Miki tightened his grip, unconsciously. "I think it might just be time to take steps in dealing with them," he said grimly. "The problem is that the majority of Isolationists are just political crackpots," Leona looked annoyed, "it's only one in a thousand who actually goes any farther. And catching individual crazies is much harder than targeting the mostly harmless groups." "But..." Miki started. Nanami took his hand and squeezed it. "I understand how you feel, love," she murmured to him, "but Officer Ozaka is probably right." Miki sighed, smiling at her wryly. "I'm sorry," he admitted, "but the idea of you being hurt makes me nuts." "Me, too," Nanami set her head on Miki's shoulder. "Excuse me," Leona nodded, moving over to where one of the forensic investigation teams was preparing to enter the building. "You'll need the Haz-mat fields, too," she cautioned them, "it appears to have been a dirty weapon." "Biological?" Grissom asked, his brown hair with grey temples combed back with it’s usual rigidly. "Low grade radioactives," Leona answered him promptly, "we gave counter-rad doses to the injured already but the facility itself is still hot." "Lovely," his second in command rolled her eyes, Willows carrying one of the evidence gathering kits under her arm. "We'll handle it," the third man smiled wryly as Stokes added, "thanks." "All right," Grissom said as they went inside, "Stokes, the blast may have left hairs and clothes remains. Sidle and Brown, I want you do general sweep of connecting rooms. Willows, you’re with me." Leona turned to talk to her own team, then she paused when she saw what was going on. Cyber Six had arrived and Honey Kisaragi was gazing up at her adoringly even as members of the unit gave their supervisor their reports. ‘That crush sure is cute,' Leona thought with some amusement. "Ma'am," Leona respectfully nodded to Cyber Six in greeting, standing in a bubble of quiet amid the emergency squads and other workers. "Leona," Cyber Six smiled back grimly, "I hope you have some good news." "Mixed," Leona said as she activated her hand held computer and accessed the files. "The bomber, Satoshi Ikibara, was exploded along with his device but the forensics team is on site. No casualties, thankfully, and only minimal injuries reported so far." Cyber Six digested that. "Timeline?" she asked. "Internal monitors registered his arrival half an hour ago, he made his way up to the top floor supposedly to discuss the Jupiter colonization plans," Leona said, "we're backtracking how he got fake credentials to access the building. He met with Mrs. Kiryuu's assistant Natsuki and when she went for coffee he detonated the device." "He deliberately made sure just to damage property," Cyber six murmured. "And he used a fake name to gain access?" she asked. "Specs back at headquarters is checking on that," Leona answered promptly, "if he didn't have a record he might have been able to use his real one." "I assume he was an Isolationist?" Cyber Six asked. "Yes," Leona admitted, "how did you know?" "The only terrorist activity lately has been Isolationist based," Cyber Six growled out, "and after the conference up at the Palace it's picked up even more. There was a attempted hostage taking a while back, another bombing and various threats..." Leona shook her head, "I don't get it... it's only been a meeting of old friends, why are the Isolationists so damn worried?" "They probably figure there's some great conspiracy with Jurai and our other allies," Cyber Six sighed. She looked off into the distance thoughtfully then asked, "The building had modern security systems?" "The latest," Leona agreed after checking her files. "So how did they get the bomb in there?" Cyber Six asked. "Theoretically the security system should have tagged all known form of explosives." Leona saw where she was going, "We’ll need to check with Grissom’s team but it seems they must have gotten something pretty exotic to evade security. But how?" "We'll have to see what the experts say," Cyber Six answered calmly, "but we know one thing already." "Yes?" Leona looked curious. "To create or acquire an undetectable form of explosive would be an extremely costly enterprise," Cyber Six said grimly, "whoever is behind this has very deep pockets, as we used to say. You might want Anna and Uni to see if any of their old contacts can help find out where it came from." "Right." Leona hesitated, unsure how to say what she felt she needed to say. "Should we bounce this over to the Intelligence service?" she had to ask. "Not yet," Cyber Six answered promptly, "as far as we know this is domestic." She smiled faintly, "Besides, I intend to keep Intelligence informed through unofficial channels." "How so?" Leona blinked. Cyber Six nodded towards where Honey was collecting witness statements and said with a smile, "She also draws pay from Lady Minako's people, I'm sure I can get her to pass the information on." "You know about that?" Leona looked surprised. "She wanted me to know before the chief hired her," Cyber Six sounded mostly amused, "Honey appears almost too honest at times." Leona debated mentioning the crush Honey seemed to have on Cyber Six, but decided to keep quiet. "Anything else, ma'am?" she asked. "I think that about covers it," Cyber Six said, "I'll update the chief and see what feelers I can put out, too. Keep up the good work, officer." "Thank you," Leona saluted. To be continued... Notes: I touched on Leona and the Puma sisters in an earlier chapter, so I wanted to bring them back. Also we have the first appearance of Honey Kisaragi, aka Cutey Honey, who may or may not appear again. The crush may be due to a slight resemblance between Cyber Six and Honey's old girlfriend, Aoi Natsuki.
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