[h3]Siberia[/h3]


[b]Japanese Airspace
8:14 PM[/b]


"[i]Geisha Girl[/i] to NEF air control."

Lieutenant Kondō's Tokugawa J-31 soared over the evening sky of the Siberian tundra at five thousand feet. The two-engine bomber moved faster without its usual heavy payload weighing it down. The only thing it carried was the lieutenant and his five crew members. Besides the co-pilot, there were three gunners and a bombardier manned to their posts. Like Kondō, they were all relegated to scout duties.

"Air control here," came the radio's reply almost a minute later. "Go ahead [i]Geisha Girl[/i]."
 
"We're losing light," said Kondō. The sun was now a giant orange ball rapidly disappearing over the horizon. "Permission to turn back?"

Kondō looked over at Lieutenant Shoji. The two pilots traded looks while they awaited a response from Admiral Hoga's headquarters. Kondō and the others were ready to go home, they'd been ready since they were called in around noon. While [i]Geisha Girl [/i]was their second home, they'd been in the aircraft for nearly eight hours on the one day of the week they were supposed to be off-duty. 

"[i]Geisha Girl[/i], what's your location and altitude?"

"Air control, we're cruising at five thousand and forty-five feet," Shoji said into his headset before looking down at the map and their current heading. "...And we're about twenty minutes south-southwest of the Chinese border. We'll have to push it to get back before night, but we should make it just as twilight ends."

"Come on back, but lower your altitude to one thousand on the way back to accommodate for lost light. Any signs of Tempura Six are to be reported right away."

"Roger that," said Kondō. "[i]Geisha Girl[/i] out."

Kondō began to loop the bomber around while lowering the altitude. He keyed the microphone that relayed his voice the rest of the crew inside the aircraft.

"This is your captain speaking," he said in a monotone voice. "The Naval High Command, in all its wisdom, has seen fit to relieve us of duty. Please continue to look for any signs of Lieutenant Commander Nagumo, who should have known better than to go missing in action on our day off. Thank you for flying IJN airlines. IJN airlines where, if you fly with us you have no other choice."

Laughter came over the comm system from the other crewmembers. Kondō looked to his right and furrowed his brow when he saw the slight scowl look on Shoji's face.

"What?"

"A man has gone missing is what. It's annoying we had to come on duty, but still."

"The lieutenant's problem isn't that Nagumo's missing," Toma said from his spot in the tail gunner seat. "It's the steps they take. We're just one of a hundred planes in the air today, swarming up and down Siberia looking for Nagumo and his plane. On top of that they got boats searching the coast and soldiers combing the ground."

"Command pulls out the stops to find one of their own," Morita said in a bored tone. He was halfway down the fuselage in the bombardier seat. 

"Yeah," said Date from the gun he was manning right beside Morita. "If you want someone to care about you, you gotta make rank."

"It's more than just that," said Kondō. "Short of Vice Admiral Hoga disappearing, they wouldn't mobilize this kind of manpower. This is Hoga, scared shitless of reprisals from Tokyo."

"What do you mean?" Toma asked.

Kondō smirked as he leveled [i]Geisha Girl[/i] out to an even thousand feet.

"I know that none of you have really met Nagumo before," he said after a pregnant pause. "It's just the division between officers and enlisted, and bombers and fighter pilots. I've gone drinking with him several times. He's usually tight lipped, keeps to himself. But if he gets good and trashed he lets some stuff slip over time. The lieutenant commander has powerful family back on the home islands."

"How powerful?" Shoji asked.

"So powerful they don't have last names. Just titles."

"Shit," Morita said over the comm. "Really?"

"Yeah," said Kondō. "His dirty little secret."

Shoji whistled. "As bad as it must be to be Nagumo right now -- it he's still alive that is --  Hoga has it ten times worse."


---


[b][i]IJN Shogun [/i]
9:44 PM[/b]


Vice Admiral Hoga looked out at the ocean from the bridge of the carrier. He carried an empty glass in his gloved hands. The glass had been filled with sake repeatedly, Hoga downing the shots as quickly as he could get them. Captain Sasaki was the only other officer on the bridge tonight and he stood off to the side, watching Hoga and refilling his glass when he called for more sake.

"Ground searches have been suspended due to lack of light," said Sasaki. When there was no reaction from Hoga, he continued. "The last few stragglers of the air patrol landed a few minutes ago. None of them reported finding Nagumo's plane. We're set to restart the searches again tomorrow. Starting first thing at dawn."

"Very well," Hoga said quietly. "Captain, do you know how to work the radio of the [i]Shogun[/i]?"

"Yes, sir," said Sasaki. "I was a communications officer when I first joined the navy. It's something you don't forget."

Hoga nodded and stared at the glass in his hands. "I need you to send out an encrypted message to Tokyo. Marked urged and top secret, for Admiral Kubo's eyes only." 

Sasaski began to walk towards the radio. He pulled a key from his belt and unlocked a metal drawer below the ship's radio equipment. He pulled out a pencil and one-time encryption pad. The pad had a code key that he could use to encrypt the message before sending it. Once it arrived, the message would decoding using a pad that had only one corresponding mate at naval headquarters in Tokyo.

The captain licked the tip of the pencil and prepared to write. "How much detail shall I go into, sir?"

Hoga rolled the empty glass in his hand. "Short and to the point. Tell him that Prince Nagumo Kishimoto has gone missing somewhere in Siberia. We're doing all that we can to find him, but so far there has been no sign of either plane wreckage or a body."