Chapter Ninety-Three: Shocking the Whole World

The first floor hall of the villa was hushed, the atmosphere heavy with a subtle, oppressive tension.

Kyle and General Chester held one another’s gaze for a moment. Each had his own thoughts and convictions, and at this instant, something that had once been joined as one finally showed the faintest crack.

What General Chester valued was military strength. National interests came before everything else, and for that cause he would support the decision even if it put Kyle, or even himself, in danger.

“Major General Kyle, I ask you to consider this carefully,” General Chester said in a slow, measured voice. “This is not a plan I devised on my own. It was, this morning, collectively discussed by the generals and officials, and unanimously chosen as the best solution.”

For them, of course, it was the best solution.

Leaning back on the sofa, Kyle wore a cold expression and fell into thought.

General Chester tried to reassure him. “Rest assured. After you go to Tokyo, I will have armed soldiers stationed on Sea Mist Street to ensure your family’s safety.”

Along with protection, of course, came the implication of surveillance and control.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, both hands resting on the back of the sofa. His voice grew colder. “No problem. I accept the mission.”

“Kyle...” General Chester began, relief in his tone, but Kyle cut him off. “Sir, Lucy and I are about to take a nap. Would you mind leaving?”

The pointedly distant way he asked the man to leave caused General Chester’s expression to stiffen slightly. After a breath, he said, “Then I leave everything in your hands. The soldiers I brought will remain here at all times, and when the departure time comes in two days, a car will come to take you to the base airport.”

“Then I won’t see you out,” Kyle said indifferently.

General Chester did not take offense. Rising slowly from the sofa, he headed for the front door.

At the doorway, he paused, lifting his head to look at the blue sky and white clouds outside. For an instant, he felt an urge to turn back and make amends, but reason quickly overpowered sentiment. He stepped out with firm resolve.

Inside, Kyle sat silent on the sofa. He reached into the air with his palm, and a white item card from his spatial storage area was drawn forth and materialized into a major general’s insignia, a badge of honor.

Kyle did not even glance at the insignia. He tossed it straight into the trash.

...

That afternoon, General Chester, the five-star American general, stood before the plaza of the White House to mourn and bid farewell to the President’s remains. At the same time, as the military’s representative, he issued an important announcement to the assembled media:

Major General Kyle, symbol of the nation’s conquest and strength, the super war hero, would be sent alone to Tokyo in the Asian theater to carry out a military mission to kill the supreme leader, the Emperor!

As soon as the news broke, the nation was thrown into shock.

The American public largely doubted it. Kyle’s individual combat ability was beyond question, but openly sending him alone into an enemy country to assassinate a head of state was, without question, a suicidal mission of the most extreme kind.

Yet on the podium, General Chester made it clear that Major General Kyle had agreed to and accepted this major assignment, and that Kyle had both the ability and the confidence to complete the order, leaving the protesting citizens and soldiers with nothing to say.

That night, when the news spread rapidly across the world through every available channel, it was as though a massive earthquake had struck the globe.

The entire world was in an uproar.

After careful analysis and judgment, every nation concluded that this lone assassination mission was no longer merely arduous; it could only be described as the result of a temporary bout of madness on the part of the American military, and of Major General Kyle’s own arrogance.

In the Asian theater, where the war still raged on, Japan’s upper ranks were deeply humiliated and inflamed when they learned of the news that night.

To them, the Americans had spent years sending large numbers of warships to invade the islands off Japan’s coast without ever gaining the upper hand. And now, they had the shameless nerve to send a lone operative to threaten the great Emperor.

One man against a nation? What a ridiculous joke.

The Emperor of Japan delivered a forceful public speech from the Imperial Residence in Tokyo the next morning: “We warmly welcome Major General Kyle of the United States to come and ‘visit’ Tokyo. When the time comes, our soldiers will teach him a little of the essence of Bushido!”

Kyle had not even left the house yet, and the two countries, separated by a vast ocean, were already exchanging fire with the thickest possible smell of gunpowder.

Of all nations, Germany, which had long since surrendered, understood Kyle best. As an observer, it watched this scene with mixed feelings: on the one hand, hoping Japan would avenge them; on the other, looking on with an inexplicable sympathy.

The Soviet Union and Britain, the United States’ allies, watched from the sidelines with cold eyes, unable to tell what new scheme the American military and Kyle himself were plotting, and unwilling to reach any hasty conclusion.

It was the most unbelievable single-man assassination mission in history.

From that moment on, Kyle’s name spread officially across the world. Whether he was a meteor flashing across the night sky and gone in an instant, or a sun suspended in the river of stars and the cosmos, he was the brightest and most dazzling hero of the Second World War.

New York Military Headquarters, in the office of the supreme command.

A communications officer stopped at the doorway. Looking toward General Chester, who sat behind his desk, he saluted and reported, “Sir, Captain Fury Nico wishes to see you.”

“Captain Fury...” General Chester thought for a moment, then nodded. “Send him in.”

The communications officer withdrew. The next moment, Fury, dressed in a neat officer’s uniform, hurried into the office almost at a run.

“What is it? As an officer who won last year’s Best Commander honor, you’re so impatient,” General Chester said softly.

“Precisely because I was the best commander, I have a unique understanding of the battlefield,” Fury said, drawing a deep breath, his face grave. “General Chester, why have you sent Major General Kyle to carry out such a high-risk mission alone? If Kyle and I led the forces together and applied full pressure on Japan, just like in the large-scale battle last time, our chances of victory would be much greater!”

“Captain! Are you questioning my deployment orders?!” General Chester lifted his head and fixed Fury with a stern gaze.

Fury clenched his teeth and refused to back down. “I don’t understand! I ask you to give me an answer!”

“I know. You and Major General Kyle have always been comrades, and he was the one who promoted you,” General Chester said, softening his tone. “You must understand that this decision was made after discussion by all the American legislators and the military’s generals. It is not something I can easily alter.”

“I think I understand now,” Fury said with a smile. “So you actually fear a hero who defends his country...”

“Captain! Watch your words!” General Chester warned coldly.

Fury ignored him and went on. “You were the ones who promoted him step by step through your own propaganda, pushing Kyle up onto the altar of a war hero. And now you think he has risen too high, so high that you have begun to fear him. That is why, under the banner of patriotism, you are trying to balance him, constrain him, and doubt him in every possible way. But in truth, you know nothing about Kyle. He is a man who is very difficult to approach, yet once you do approach him, he is fiercely loyal and deeply sentimental. And the national power you value so much means nothing to him at all.”

By the time Fury finished, he seemed utterly disappointed in the military. He removed his officer’s cap and the insignia from his left shoulder, then placed them solemnly on the desk.

“Fury Nico hereby applies to the supreme commander to resign his commission as a captain.”

With a carefree shrug, Fury turned and headed straight for the office door, leaving behind one final sentence.

“Sir. Someday, you will realize how foolish your decision was. You are driving away a super hero!”

General Chester stood rigidly, staring after Fury’s departing figure. At last he closed his eyes and sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead.

In that moment, he seemed to have aged several years. He no longer looked like the commanding, majestic five-star general he had been, but rather like a helpless old man.