Ultimate Justice Read Free Page A

here!”
    Jack gathered Kakko in his arms and cuddled her to him. “You look after your mum. Look after her like I would!”
    â€œYeah, Dad. I’ll try…”
    They all gave the departing couple appropriate cuddles. Momori lingered over Jalli. She looked tired.
    â€œI wish you weren’t going,” she said, and added, “but then I never did want you to go anywhere for myself, so don’t mind an old fool like me. You have your adventure girl. Have fun!”
    â€œYay,
fun
!” laughed Kakko.
    â€œCome on, let’s go,” breathed Jalli. “Before I change my mind.”

    ***
    Jalli and Kakko found themselves inside a large storeroom of some kind. It had a high corrugated iron roof with a skylight. It was piled up with wooden crates on pallets. There was a forklift truck parked in one corner. It looked like a loading bay because all down one side were roller shutters right to the ground and, on the other, some large, plastic swing doors. Inside the room it was quiet but there was a steady hum from another area somewhere beyond, and the sound of traffic outside. There was not, however, any sign of people.
    Kakko examined the crates. She tried to lift one of them but, although it measured no more than sixty centimetres in width and length, and thirty centimetres deep, it was far too heavy for her. Jalli studied the crates which bore what looked like a danger symbol and a picture of the contents. She had seen something similar before. Where? Then it flooded back to her. She recalled Mr. Somaf showing her a land mine in Tolfanland. That one had been disarmed but he had shown her it to warn her what lay all around his house. It had been one such devise that had killed four soldiers while she and Jack had been there. (Although she had not seen the dead bodies herself, Jack had given her a graphic description.) Whatever you thought of the necessity of war, these weapons were unethical, Jalli had declared. But Jalli had long since concluded that war did not solve anything in the long term anyway, there were far more effective ways of tackling arguments and misunderstandings. The histories of both her planet and that of Earth One were testimony to that.
    â€œBe careful,” said Jalli in horror. “I know what these are. They are land mines. This room is full of high explosive weapons, enough to blow up a small town I should guess.”
    â€œWhat are we supposed to do?” asked Kakko.
    â€œProceed with caution. Let’s go through those doors. It’ll become clear what our task is when we find someone.”
    The two women pushed carefully though the plastic doors. Immediately outside was a little glass cubicle with a man in blue overalls, like theirs, seated on a swivel chair, reading a newspaper.
    â€œWhat? Have you just come through from the loading bay?”
    â€œEr… yes,” croaked Jalli.
    â€œHow did you get in there?”
    â€œEr… it’s our first day in this department. We were looking for the er… ladies.”
    â€œThe toilets? In there?”
    â€œYes – but it’s the wrong door.”
    â€œYou don’t say! Can’t you read? It says quite clearly, ‘No unauthorised entry’. Are you authorised?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œNo, you’re not. How you got by me, I don’t know. The toilets, ladies, are over the far side… by the canteen.”
    â€œThanks,” muttered Jalli.
    â€œSorry,” said Kakko. She was used to saying sorry.
    The man shrugged and they walked across a large workshop with benches upon benches with men and women (mostly women) assembling what looked like bombs and armoured shells.
    â€œA munitions factory for sure,” observed Jalli.
    They made their way towards a sign which said, ‘Canteen’ in case the man was watching them, but he had long since reverted to his newspaper. A woman in front them pushed a door into the ladies’ toilets. Jalli