"Oh Noll! It's wonderful to see you!" Madoka gushed as she embraced him. Noll shook her off and nodded at Lin. "Are you annoyed at me?" Madoka asked and when Noll did not say anything, she went on. "I tried to persuade Mai to stay at SPR, but she was determined to leave and she can be more stubborn than you."
"We'll discuss that later," Noll said. "Are you up to date on the matter?"
"Sort of," Madoka replied. "Yasuhara has filled me in. When are the others turning up?"
"Within the half hour," Yasuhara said and Noll groaned. "It was Himeko's idea."
"We don't need them," Noll stated as he took a seat. "Their abilities are useless in this case and their minds even less so."
"Just as rude as ever," Madoka said in a sing-song voice. She hugged Himeko briefly before picking up the brochures. Madoka, Lin and Yasuhara took seats on the sofa while the former two began rifling through the pages.
"I'll go and make some tea," Himeko said and retreated to the kitchen.
"This has got to be an expensive operation," Madoka commented. "Surely they must have laid tracks. They have to be getting their funding from somewhere?"
"I couldn't find anything," Yasuhara said. "But I have some people looking into it."
"What is your plan?" Madoka asked Noll.
"We have a way in," Noll started. "I want to get a good look around and find Mai. If we know more, we can get a better strategy to get her out."
"But the men on the gate were armed," Yasuhara said. "How are we to fight against that?"
"How good are her abilities?" Noll asked Madoka, nodding his head towards Himeko, who had just appeared in the doorway with a tray full of mugs.
"I am standing right here," Himeko muttered. She handed out the tea and was rewarded with a series of 'thanks' and nods.
"She has great control over her PK and she's as good a medium as Masako," Madoka said, casting Himeko with an appraising professional eye. " But I have never seen her work with anything other than Japanese spirits, so I can't judge whether she is on Gene's level or not."
"And she has good intuition," Noll said, more to himself than anyone else.
"So it would seem."
A knock at the door heralded the arrival of Ayako and Houshou. Once greetings had been made and Houshou attempted - and completely failed - to embarrass his daughter, Yasuhara gave everyone the low down. Noll stood and began pacing by the window.
As if a thought occurred to him, he strode to the table and picked up Mai's phone. A moment later, his body dropped to the floor.
"Noll?" Lin spoke for the first time as he rushed from his seat and to his former ward's side.
"He didn't sit down first," Madoka said. "Idiot."
Noll sat bolt upright when the vision ended.
"It doesn't make sense," he panted, obviously following his own train of thought.
"What doesn't?" Ayako asked.
"That building was shielded, and even now I can't get any image of Mai after she left this apartment," he said as he held up Mai's phone. "But that letter gave me a vision from within that building. The view was the same."
"So either the shields were down at that time," Yasuhara surmised. "Or they wanted you to see it."
"Which means it's a trap," Lin said gravely. "We should be careful."
John and Masako did not arrive for another hour due to traffic. Masako took a seat quietly after greeting her friends, but John looked almost frantic.
"I think this is my fault," he stammered. "I told them about Mai." He had returned to his native tongue in his nervous state.
"Explain," Noll demanded, switching tongues as to help John.
"About two weeks ago, I got a phonecall from a man, I can't remember his name," John began and Himeko began whispering a translation to her parents. "But he was asking about Mai, said she'd provided me as a reference for a job. I'd offered to be her reference ages and ages ago and so didn't think anything of it!"
"What did he ask?"
"About her abilities, said the job was at a paranormal research institute and wanted to know if she was the real deal or not…" John said, and looked up in horror. "I told him everything about her abilities and how good she was… It's my fault…"
Madoka pulled him into an embrace.
"It's not your fault."
"That still doesn't answer how they knew about Mai in the first place," Noll said.
"Tell me about your friends?" Lucy asked. Her face was rather pale and Mai wondered if she was sick.
"What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
"We used to all work together," Mai began. She had decided to avoid telling Lucy about the paranormal stuff. "We used to solve problems for people."
"Like what? Private investigators?"
"I guess, but we'd take the weird cases," Mai said with a chuckle. "They were almost like a family. I had Ayako and Bou-san as my parents, Lin and Madoka were the weird aunt and uncle. John and Masako were my siblings. Yasuhara was - and still is - my best friend. And then…"
"And then?" Lucy prompted.
"Naru," Mai said. "He was our boss, but only a year or so older than me. He was brilliant, admittedly not the best with people, but…"
"He was the man you loved?"
"Yes," Mai said with a bitter smile. "He was. Though he thought I was in love with his brother. It took him a while to realise that wasn't the case." Her smile changed in quality as she remembered happier things. "It was wonderful for a long time. Not like in the movies, it wasn't fireworks or anything, but it just felt right." Her smile dropped. "He discovered we wanted different things in life. When his father fell terminally ill, he returned to his family and never came back."
"What a dick!" Lucy exclaimed and Mai laughed at her outburst.
"Yes, he was a bit, wasn't he?"
"Obviously does not deserve you one bit."
"You aren't the first person to say that," Mai said. There was a momentary pause.
"So you dated your boss?" Lucy asked, with a slight hint of teasing in her eyes.
"Yes."
"And what exactly was your job title?"
"I was his assistant…"
"It's like something out of a bad romance novel," Lucy said with a coughing laugh. "Did you screw him on your desk at lunch in secret and stuff like in the novels too?"
"Eww! No! Lin would have seen!" Mai squealed and suddenly she felt a lot younger. "It was in his office with the door shut, I'll have you know!" Lucy giggled at Mai's expression.
"All you need is a secret lovechild and it really would be like something from a bad romance novel…"
"Yes," Mai agreed. "If only…"
"We should have brought the others," Himeko muttered as Yasuhara pulled up to the guarded gate a little before ten AM two days after their initial visit to The Institute.
"If we had brought them and gotten caught, then we'd have no backup. Besides, we are what the man is expecting."
This time, the guards waved them through on sight. Yasuhara parked the car and turned to face Noll and Himeko.
"Please be careful in there, both of you."
"Of course we will," Himeko said brightly as she climbed out of the car. Noll nodded his thanks to Yasuhara and followed the young woman.
"I don't know how good their English is, so be wary of what you say in any language," Noll said.
"I know."
"And if I say run, just do it."
"Likewise," Himeko replied stoutly.
"I'll do no such thing, more people care about you than they do me," Noll said. "You're more important."
"But it's like you said," Himeko said as they reached the entrance. "If you get caught, we have less backup."
"You're not wrong," Noll said with a smirk. "Come on."
They entered the building and were greeted by the same receptionist.
"Nakamura-sama will be-"
"Right here," Nakamura said as he strode through doors on the other side of the entrance hall. "Pleasure to meet you Dr Davis. I'm honoured you decided to visit our humble establishment. I hate to be so nitpicky, but might I see both your IDs? We have to be very careful about spies."
"Of course," Noll said and pulled out his BSPR ID card from an inner pocket.
"Dr Davis, I don't have…" Himeko began.
"You forgot your card? Imbecile."
"What seems to be the problem?" Nakamura asked with a fake smile.
"My assistant has forgotten her ID card."
"Well then I'm afraid she will not be able to join us for the tour," Nakamura said. "She'll have to stay here."
"Fine," Noll said. "Wait here." He gave Himeko a warning look as she appeared to want to argue, but she backed down.
"Let's go, shall we?"
"Let's," Noll agreed and he followed Nakamura from the reception. Himeko watched the two men go with an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She did not like the situation one bit, but they had to rescue Mai and Himeko could see no other way to do it than to continue on the dangerous road into enemy territory.
"So on the ground floor we have our labs," Nakamura began as he indicated internal windows into white laboratories. "I presume you've read our brochure?" Noll nodded. "Well this is where the magic happens. We have the best experts in genetics working to combine samples to create ideal weapons."
"And how do you get these samples?"
"Willing participants sympathetic to our cause," Nakamura said smoothly. "Follow me." Noll complied and they walked up one set of stairs to the next floor. "On this floor, we have our mothers. We currently have fifty active, and a further twenty or so being prepared."
"And they are paid and treated well?"
"Like queens."
"How many soldiers do you have ready?"
"Currently only a handful of full grown ones, but many more growing."
"I presume lack of numbers is a funding issue?" Noll enquired, his face straight as they walked past rooms.
"Our financial backers want to see some results before they go all in," Nakamura admitted. "But they realise this is a long time project."
"What abilities do you focus on?"
"PK mostly, but we have our feet into telepathic connections between soldiers and we have a new donor with a very interesting ability to sense danger."
"Sounds useful," Noll commented.
"I'm glad you agree," Nakamura said as they reached the next set of doors. The short man smiled in a way that did not settle well with Noll.
Mai did not remember falling asleep, or rather, being knocked out. But when she woke, she frowned. Had gravity been switched off?
Lucy and her sheets were sideways. Why were they sideways?
Mai tried to sit up, but her stomach hurt. She felt like she'd been punched several times in the gut.
"Lucy?" her voice came out cracked. Why was her mouth so dry?
Her room slowly came into focus. Lucy was hanging from the bars on the window with a sheet around her neck.
"Lucy! Help! Someone! Anyone!" Mai's shouts were coarse as she struggled to her feet. Her entire body was agony. But she could still save Lucy. She had to!
Mai struggled to get her only friend in this place down. She ignored how cold Lucy's skin was. It was a cold room, of course she'd be cold.
Then strong hands pushed her aside.
"Get her down," a harsh order came. "Taniyama, get out of the way."
Mai crumpled back onto her bed, panting at the effort of moving.
"Lucy," she moaned.
"She's dead," one of the men said. "And as useless as Taniyama here."
"I'm not-" Mai began, her eyes widening in terror.
"Leave her alone. Nakamura must have another use for her," the other man growled.
Mai watched as they dragged Lucy's body away.
"Another use?" Mai stammered. She clutched her stomach as pain wracked through her body.
"Well I'd've thought you were too old to be a mother, but they might use your own eggs in you if they have some spare…"
Understanding crept through Mai's brain as they slammed the door behind them. She collapsed and sobbed.
As they passed through the next set of doors, Noll realised much too late that he was in trouble. Two men grabbed his arms and threw him none too gently to the ground. Noll growled in anger and tried to stand, but it was to no avail.
"Well Dr Davis, I never thought I'd be seeing you again but I was hopeful when we stumbled across Taniyama," Nakamura said. "I guess you don't realise the full weight of that statement, do you?"
"What are you talking about?" Noll hissed.
"The last time I saw you," Nakamura went on as Noll struggled to free himself. "You still had yourself a brother. It was a shame I had to arrange his death, but we wanted to see the effects you see. Do it."
Noll was about to retort when he felt a sharp pain in his arm.
And then everything went black.
"If I were you," the receptionist began quietly. "I would run now."
Himeko looked around at these words.
"What?" she hissed.
"Run. Now," the receptionist said in a low and terrified voice. "While you still can."
Himeko paused for a moment. Then took in the genuine fear in the woman's face. Then she heard a man's shout from above. Then she realised.
"Dr Davis…" she whispered.
"Go!"
And Himeko ran.
Author's note: So the last chapter got 3 reviews.
Honestly, the more effort I put into things, the less reviews I get. Go figure...
*dramatic sigh*
Should I bother asking you all to review? Do none of you love me?
*another dramatic sigh*
Review if you want another chapter!
