ヨルムンガンド Perfect Order episode 09 (21)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Koko’s squad kidnaps quantum physicist Elena Baburin, killing her entire armed escort in the process. This catches the interest of Chief Black. Scarecrow continues tracking Koko’s finances, discovering she’s hiding her activities from her father and brother. Schokolade tracks Koko’s group to Japan. Koko meets with Kirasagi, investing heavily in his manufacturing company which specializes in quantum dot photonic crystal nanodevices.  Continuing their world tour, Koko’s group is met at the Dulles airport by Yousuke, who reveals he knows where all Koko has been of late. She agrees to meet with him at a nearby fast food restaurant, but inside, they find Chief Black waiting for them. Koko agrees to sit with Book Man, but only if he picks up the lunch tab for her entire crew.

Over lunch, Chief Black baits Yousuke regarding him getting involved with HCLI. He tells Koko that his mission has always been to protect her, but should she continue down her present path, she’ll cross a line she shouldn’t cross. Koko wonders what Black is protecting, asking if he’d still protect it should the world change. Black inquires further about this new world of Koko’s, but she doesn’t reveal more. After Koko’s team leaves, Black learns that Yousuke stayed in Washington rather than return to the Bahamas. He predicts that when Koko’s team gets to Miami, she’ll lose them. Sure enough, Schokolade reports to Scarecrow that she’s lost Koko’s team in Miami, which he too had been expecting.

At a CIA briefing session, it is decided that Koko’s next target is Ibrahim Faiza, aka: Rabbit’s Foot, who is a 39 year old Egyptian quantum physicist who’s hacking got him into trouble, thus being held at Camp No in Guantanamo  Black reveals that Ibrahim Faiza is actually a 28 year old woman Leila Ibrahim Faiza, even providing a live feed from the place the woman is being held, which has lots of gadgets. Since she’s not being legally held, her presence at Camp No is a secret. Black then switches to a Global Hawk camera feed over the Märchen South Africa facility, where they see Minami and Karen relaxing in the onsen installed there. They also see a third woman relaxing in the hot water, believing her to be Dr. Baburin.

Kasper has completed a delivery of SAMs and takes a call from HCLI, as HQ is concerned that Koko came to America but didn’t check in with HQ. Kasper isn’t worried about that since he understands why Koko wouldn’t report in. He is not happy with HCLI’s direction, which would seem to remove the need for arms merchants. He’s happy about the SAM sale, so Chiquita suggests BBQ. Kasper says they should party. Elsewhere, Koko is running her squad through another exercise that Lutz recognizes as a kidnapping one. Koko acknowledges this, but everyone on her team is with her no matter what. Still elsewhere, Yousuke meets with Torrey Plame, where he learns that Black has maneuvered Yousuke and NSA out of the picture. Plame reveals that Seal Team 9 will be dispatched to Guantanamo to deal with Koko and her team.

Thoughts/Review:

I know that the series has hinted that Koko is becoming a monster of sorts, but she’s starting to feel that way even more, aided by the direction of the anime to shroud Koko in black at one point during her fast food restaurant meeting with Black and Yousuke. I get the feeling that she’d be a real tyrant if given the power.

It is interesting that Lutz started questioning things, though it isn’t surprising that he and the others are with Koko no matter what.  Up until now, Koko’s squad have been all about protecting her and making sure deliveries are made.  As such, there’s never been much of a problem for them to just kill whomever needed killing to protect Koko.  With the squad kidnapping Elena Baburin and apparently planning to kidnap Leila Ibrahim Faiza, they’ve gone from protection to a more sinister type of activity. Assuming that Dr. Baburin is not an unwilling prisoner, it still doesn’t change the nature of the shift in Koko’s squad’s activities.

It appears that Koko wants to create a quantum computer for whatever purposes. I’m not very versed on quantum computing, but I think that everything mentioned in the episode is pretty much accurate when it comes to encryption and the like. It would seem that Koko’s making a new world by revealing everyone’s secrets would still put her as a tyrant.

Seal Team 9 is fictitious, but I am curious to see how the Japanese display a Seal team in action. I’m assuming they’ll show up next episode to counter Koko’s squad.

Since I still have another episode in the pipe, I’ll go ahead and watch that rather than comment further here.  Until then.