"So... where are we headed?" Sachiko said softly right into Alanna's ear, resting her head against her shoulder for warmth.
"For the night, or for the future?" Alanna asked.
"Good question. Start with the first," she said.
Evening was fast approaching, and while Alanna seemed to know what direction she was heading in, both knew full well that they'd have to stay somewhere for the night; the ATV was fast enough, but it certainly wouldn't keep them warm enough when the sun set. Both were well aware that while they probably wouldn't die of exposure yet, it would be still be dangerous and miserable if they didn't find shelter before nightfall.
"I've been heading south east in what should more or less be a straight line ever since rescuing you," Alanna told her. "Travelling perfectly south-east-- as in, on a 125 degree line-- there's a town built on the side of a mountain, we should be approaching in around an hour. Thankfully, even if we did get a bit astray, we should be able to see it."
Sachiko hugged her tightly. "You planned for everything, didn't you?" she whispered.
"No," she said, thinking, I didn't plan for you. She still wasn't sure what to make of Sachiko's change in personality; she seemed so different now. Alanna knew that it was just her trying to be honest, and she appreciated that, but all the same, it just seemed so weird. But she didn't say anything; there was no point.
"I don't know what we're going to do from there," Alanna said. "I know we've got to track down a linguist, but... how, I don't know yet."
"Why's that?"
The thought flashed across her mind that maybe she shouldn't explain it to Sachiko after all; she'd tried so hard to make sure that Sachiko didn't get her hands on Yazawa's package, so the idea of telling her all about it now seemed briefly very wrong. She then felt a bit ashamed... she'd decided to trust her now, after all.
"Well... I ended up finding three things in Alexander's package," Alanna started to explain. The package was resting safely in the tightly locked, back cargo basket of the ATV, along with her other valuables. "Bomb plans, a journal, and... well, I'm not sure what the third thing is. Some sort of disc, in a case covered in foreign writing. It looks Chinese, but I'm not really sure."
"Why don't you let me take a look at it?" she offered. "I wasn't really born in France, you know."
Alanna wasn't surprised, but the thought of getting her to translate honestly hadn't crossed her mind; but it made perfect sense. She knew she was really Korean, so it only made sense that she would speak the native Chinese. Or at least, she was pretty sure she was Korean. It was hard to tell with East Asians; several cultural revolutions had done their best to crush any distinctiveness between China and the former Japanese territories.
"So you really are Korean?" Alanna asked.
"Yeah," Sachiko said, quietly "One thing I didn't lie about was my name," she admitted.
"Hm," Alanna said, thoughtfully. "So, what if we escaped to China?"
"That's what I was thinking," Sachiko replied. "I have strong ties there, we should be even better than safe."
"Jesus. Who do you work for?" Alanna wondered.
"Right now? Nobody," Sachiko whispered. She hugged Alanna tightly again. "I was KGB, reporting back to China, but... the Chinese intelligence community is loose. Very loose."
"I think I know what you mean," Alanna nodded. She paused; Sachiko did know who she reported to, right? Of course she does, that's why she went after me in the first place, she remembered. But it took her a second just to be sure. "So... next stop after this, China?"
"Sounds good to me," Sachiko said softly, rubbing her head against Alanna's neck affectionately.
This is going to take a while to get used to, Alanna thought, as she drove straight south eastern.